Switzerland and US split criminal betting spoils
Switzerland and the United States have shared CHF50 million ($49.1 million) in criminal assets resulting from illegal sports betting linked to the BetOnSports online business, the justice ministry announced on Tuesday.
Under the asset-sharing case, Switzerland and the US have split the millions in illegally obtained revenue belonging to Gary Kaplan, founder of the online gambling site BetOnSports.comExternal link and other executives, which had been frozen in Swiss banks.
In 2009, Kaplan was sentenced to more than four years in prison, ending a prosecution of one of the world’s largest offshore sports gambling companies. Under the plea agreement, Kaplan and executives agreed to forfeit the millions located in Switzerland.
Following the accord, the Swiss justice ministry was able to unfreeze the assets, to allow the defendants to forfeit the funds to the US Treasury Department.
In 2013, the US Treasury proposed sharing the assets with Swiss authorities, who had provided legal assistance to US authorities by locating, freezing, and ultimately assisting US authorities to forfeit the assets. The sharing agreement was concluded at the end of 2014, and last week the Treasury Department transferred the Swiss share of the assets to the federal government.
The $25 million will now be shared between the Swiss federal government and canton Geneva, which will receive 20% after executing the legal proceedings.
Kaplan pleaded guilty in August 2009 to racketeering conspiracy, violating the US Wire Wager Act and conspiring to violate it. Prosecutors had been investigating offshore sports gambling since 1997, and BetOnSports since 2001.
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