BetOnSports Online Casino Head Withdraws Guilty Plea
David Carruthers, the online casino mogul who ran sports betting site BetOnSports, decided to reject a plea offer from US authorities just days before sentencing, and changed his plea to not guilty, according to an article in the Guardian. Carruthers, who had been under house arrest since 2006, agreed this past April to accept just under three years in prison for operating the illegal online betting site while accepting US residents.Carruthers was arrested while at the Dallas airport, onboard a plane traveling from the UK to Costa Rica. He was charged with illegally accepting sports bets from US customers.
Carruthers was scheduled to have his formal sentencing this Friday, but a court filing yesterday noted that a motion to set aside the plea arrangement had been received and accepted. The decision comes as a surprise, as the gaming head's attorneys were expected to ask the time served under house arrest in lieu of prison time, allowing him to walk free on Friday.
When Carruthers made the deal, federal prosecutors dropped six other charges which could net Carruthers as much as twenty years in federal prison.
Attorneys for both Carruthers and the US government had no comment on what persuaded the betting operator to withdraw his plea. Among the concessions Carruthers agreed to was cooperation in the prosecution of BetOnSports founder Gary Kaplan and other defendants awaiting trial.
