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Siblings of BetOnSports founder sentenced to house arrest
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
ST. LOUIS — The brother and sister of the founder of the now-defunct online gambling powerhouse BetOnSports were each sentenced Tuesday to 10 months of house arrest, and a former employee received probation.BetOnSports founder Gary Kaplan's brother, Neil Scott Kaplan, and sister, Lori Beth Kaplan-Multz, who had worked for the company, pleaded guilty in June to two felony conspiracy charges and agreed to turn over more than $6 million held in Swiss bank accounts. U.S. District Judge Carol Jackson told Kaplan-Multz that she may have begun working "in good faith" for BetOnSports. "But at some point, you knew you were breaking the law," Jackson said. Under their plea deal, Neil Kaplan and Multz were to receive several months in a halfway house in addition to their time of house arrest, but federal prosecutors recommended only the house arrest because the siblings helped persuade their brother to plead guilty. Gary Kaplan pleaded guilty in August to charges of racketeering conspiracy, violations of the wire wager act and conspiracy. He was sentenced Monday to 51 months in prison. He also agreed to forfeit $43.65 million. Kaplan's former assistant, Penelope Ann "Penny" Tucker, pleaded guilty in June to a violation of the federal wire wager act — aiding the improper use of a wire communication facility to transmit bets. In addition to the probation to which she was sentenced Tuesday, Tucker will have to forfeit almost $15,000 in an offshore account. In a 2006 indictment handed down in St. Louis, federal prosecutors accused Gary Kaplan, BetOnSports, employees and others of helping run an illegal gambling operation that once handled more than $1 billion in wagers in a year. The company has folded. Neil Kaplan worked for the company from 2000-03 and Kaplan-Multz from 2000-05, placing ads for the company in Missouri and elsewhere.
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