BetonSports Founder To Stay In Custody

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Peripatetic Kaplan has false passports, large amount of foreign cash says federal prosecutor

Hard on the heels of Thursday's guilty plea from the Betonsports online gambling group, its founder appeared in a St. Louis, Missouri district court Friday on a bond hearing.

Gary Stephen Kaplan (48), who faces 22 charges involving racketeering and other allegations was arrested in Dominica in March and extradited to the United States in custody, the St. Louis Post-Despatch reports.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Mike Fagan claimed before Judge Mary Ann Medler that Kaplan was a flight risk who had planned to escape to a country from which he could not be extradited. Fagan said the hardest thing in the Internet age is getting control of cross-border criminals who, like Kaplan, can operate "remote-controlled crime on a huge scale."

Kaplan founded Betonsports, which intends to go into liquidation after it was crippled by US enforcement activities. The British-listed company, which once took in more than $1 billion in bets annually, is out of the firing line following an agreement to cooperate on witnesses and information with the American authorities, but Kaplan, ex-CEO David Carruthers and nine other accused still face prosecution.

When federal agents arrested Kaplan in Dominica earlier this year they found that he had a handcuff key and five passports with his picture, some with different names, places of birth or other information in his possession. Kaplan also carried large sums of cash from four countries where extradition is difficult or impossible, Fagan revealed.

A spiral notebook contained details of a plan to win diplomatic protection and asylum in Nicaragua, which would have included a discreet helicopter landing pad, Fagan said.

He also said Kaplan has the ability to move among nations anonymously. Using his U.S. passport, Kaplan traveled to Israel, Venezuela, Colombia, Argentina and Peru in December, the Assistant US Attorney said. Records indicate that he next popped up in Argentina using a Dominican passport, without any record of how he got there from Peru.

After agents searched a Miami address in February and found computer records, Kaplan fled from Argentina to Venezuela using a Peruvian passport. He admitted bribing Venezuelan police and said he was trying to dodge the charges, Fagan said.

Fagan told the court that Kaplan has $107 million in assets outside the U.S. and controls multiple bank accounts.

Warren Hoeffner, Kaplan's father-in-law said that his daughter is buying a house in the St. Louis area and is planning to move there with the couple's two children, and that Kaplan was a devoted family man who would not flee or do anything to harm his relatives. Hoeffner offered to put up his second and third houses in Colorado and Florida, worth about $6.6 million, to guarantee Kaplan's appearance in court.

Kaplan's lawyers have asked Judge Mary Ann Medler for more time to respond to Fagan's allegations. According to the US Attorney website, the next hearing is scheduled for June 4 (Criminal Case Number -- 4:06CR337 CEJ ).