Interesting Change of Events
An abrupt change this week in the plea agreement between the US authorities and
former BetonSports CEO, David Carruthers, has a lot of people in the government
and the online casino gambling industry a bit confused. Carruthers has had this
plea arrangement in place since April and he would be walking away a free man in
just days had he stuck to the plea arrangement. Carruthers is among the handful
of executives and BetonSports employees that are facing some very hefty charges
in the US for their involvement in illegal online casino gambling and betting
activities in the US market. Carruthers accepted the plea deal and a great deal
of his charges were dropped by the government in exchange for his help and his
guilty plea.
Interesting enough, perhaps his conscience struck him because he withdrew the
guilty plea this week even though he was to go up for sentencing on Friday.
There was every expectation that the judge would accept Carruther’ guilty plea
and time served under house arrest as sufficient to fulfill the three year
sentence he accepted as a part of the plea agreement. But as a part of the
agreement Carruthers was going to have to testify in court against Gary Kaplan
and others that are still facing trials for their interaction in the former
online casino betting company.
There has been no indication of why Carruthers chose to withdraw his guilty plea
consider he could have been off house arrest in just days. The government
prosecutors accepted his change to a not-guilty plea and this means that the
case is back to square one and Carruthers is once again facing as many as 20
years in prison for his actions in the US online casino gambling and betting
industry. |