BetOnSports forfeits $43 Million

WASHINGTON 8/15/09 (CNN) -- The man who founded and ran the online sports gambling operation BetOnSports pleaded guilty and agreed to forfeit more than $43 million in proceeds, prosecutors announced Friday.

Gary Kaplan, 50, entered a guilty plea to conspiracy and violating wagering laws in federal court in St. Louis, Missouri, authorities said. Justice Department officials said Kaplan last week had wired the entire forfeited amount from his Swiss bank account to the court.

"Today's guilty plea should have a lasting effect because Kaplan was not only the founder of BetOnSports, he was also one of the pioneers of illegal online gambling," said John V. Gillies, special agent in charge of the FBI office in St. Louis.

Kaplan's Costa Rica-based BetOnSports operation had nearly a million customers from the United States and other countries who bet more than a billion dollars, law enforcement officials said.

Under the plea agreement, Kaplan will be sentenced to between 41 and 51 months in prison when he goes before a judge on October 27. He has been held without bond since he was arrested in March 2007.

What? I don't get what he did illegally. Why's this gaming illegal? Because the United States doesn't get paid for it?

"Costa Rica based"
"Swiss Bank Accounts"

Neither of these seem to be within the US jurisdiction to me....

Is he a US citizen? That's the only thing that would make (a little bit of) sense to me....

I'm a bit confused as well, I clicked on this title because strangely enough I just got a small book from them in the mail showing all the sports betting and how it works, etc; I've never even done sports betting online, not sure why they sent it to me, although I did recently become a paying member of the ppa.

The US just struck a deal with the Swiss banking community this week to disclose about 5,000 account holder names. There's going to be a few folks that are going to lose their bankroll (figuratively speaking) because of evading taxes in Swiss bank accounts for so long.

The illegal betting stuff just made it more dramatic for Kaplan.

43 million dollars will be like droplets in a pool to someone like this.

He is most likely intelligent and will have stashed other assets elsewhere, I know I would, he was probably aware of this inevitable outcome.

I thought swiss banks would be the safest and smartest way to avoid taxation, I wonder how they managed to get them to hand over the names.... just seems wrong imo.

That seems pretty ridiculous that they gave out 5,000 account, obviously they went to swiss banks for a reason and then they get rolled~

Swiss banks have been caving to the pressure for a few years now. Panama is the place to keep secret assets.