15-05-2007 BetonSports founder pleads not guilty to racketeering and fraud charges

Gary Kaplan entered the plea in an appearance before US District Court Judge Mary Ann Medler in St. Louis. According to iGaming News, the Kaplan's arraignment will create a significant setback for the case against other defendants as he already asked for additional time to file pretrial motions.

In other news, David Carruthers, the former CEO of BetonSports who has been under house arrest in St. Louis for the last nine months, has called for former colleagues and British and European Members of Parliament to lobby on his behalf to be allowed to use the most recent WTO decision as part of his defense.

eGaming Review has seen the letter sent by Carruthers early in May: "The US decision to arrest me not only shut down BetonSports, but the actions by the US government have destroyed nearly all the public online gaming companies in the UK. Based on what the WTO has now called a treaty violation, more than US$10bn in equity of UK-listed companies were wiped away. Three UK listed gaming companies have closed completely and other UK citizens have been arrested as well, victims of a policy that the WTO has now determined as unfair and violates their treaties."