Gary Kaplan, the founder of troubled betting site BetOnSports, has been sentenced to more than four years in prison after being found guilty on charges of racketeering and wire fraud.
The 50-year-old was sentenced by the Eastern Missouri District Court on Monday and is also being required to forfeit $43.6 million, more than half of the buinessman’s total worth, in illegally obtained revenues as part of a plea agreement.
The sentencing ends the ongoing prosecution of what was once one of the world’s largest offshore sports gambling companies. New York native Kaplan founded the Costa Rica-based firm in 1995 and steadily grew the business until it was handling $1.8 billion in bets annually by 2006.
Kaplan was indicted on Federal charges in 2006 and subsequently admitted multiple counts of conspiracy to violate the Racketeer Influenced And Corrupt Organizations Act. Prosecutors later revealed that they had been investigating offshore sports gambling since 1997 and BetOnSports since 2001 with four other former BetOnSports executives, including two of Kaplan's siblings, having also pleaded guilty.
Kaplan has been under house arrest in Missouri for two years and seven months since his arrest in Puerto Rico in 2007. United States District Court Judge Carol Jackson stated that it would be up to the Bureau Of Prisons to determine whether the entrepreneur would be given credit for time already served.
