Gary Stephen Kaplan, the founder of BetonSports.com, has been arrested in the Dominican Republic on felony charges including tax evasion and racketeering, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Friday.
Kaplan, 48, was arrested late Wednesday on charges stemming from a federal grand jury indictment in June in the Eastern District of Missouri. The 22-count indictment named Kaplan and 10 other people, plus four corporations, alleging they engaged in racketeering, conspiracy and fraud through operation of Costa Rica-based Internet gambling businesses, including BetonSports.com.
Kaplan was charged with 20 felonies, including violations of the U.S. Wire Act, interstate transportation of gambling paraphernalia and interference with the administration of Internal Revenue laws.
The DOJ will ask a U.S. magistrate judge in Puerto Rico to send Kaplan to St. Louis to face charges. Kaplan was sent to Puerto Rico for an initial appearance, the DOJ said.
Officials from the Dominican Republic and the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) assisted U.S. authorities with the arrest. “This was a worldwide search, and thanks to the assistance of many law enforcement agencies, this fugitive will soon be back in St. Louis to face the charges against him,” Catherine Hanaway, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri, said in a statement.
BetonSports PLC, a British publicly traded holding company that owns Internet sports books and casinos, was among the companies charged in the Missouri indictment. It is under a federal injunction to halt its illegal gambling business activities in the U.S. and to return its U.S. depositor funds.
The indictment alleges that Gary Kaplan and Norman Steinberg, as the owners and operators of BetonSports affiliated Web sites and sports books, took illegal bets from undercover federal agents in St. Louis.
Steinberg is still at large, as is codefendant Peter Wilson. Other defendants, including former BetonSports PLC director David Carruthers, were arrested in 2006.
