Latest: Sportingbet Chairman Released On Bail
Published: Saturday, September 09, 2006 Online-Casinos.com
SPORTINGBET CHAIRMAN RELEASED ON BAIL (Update)
British businessman intends to fight extradition order to Louisiana
Bloombergs reports that detained Sportingbet plc chairman Peter Dicks was yesterday free to leave the Rikers Island prison in New York where he has been detained for the past two nights on a Louisiana warrant of arrest for "computer gambling".
The British businessman, who was arrested Wednesday night at JFK airport on his way to board meetings in New York unrelated to online gambling, was granted $50 000 bail in a New York court while he fights extradition to Louisiana on criminal allegations of illegal Internet gambling. Dicks had to surrender his passport and must remain in New York City until his extradition hearing, set for September 14 can be heard.
Louisiana authorities want to bring Dicks back to stand trial in St. Landry Parish, where the warrant for his arrest was signed.
Frank Trosclair, a St. Landry Parish assistant district attorney, said his office was preparing extradition paperwork that will go through the governor's office before reaching New York.
New York Supreme Court Justice John Latella set bond conditions Friday after Dicks (64) spent two nights in jail. Dicks was being held on a July sealed Louisiana warrant as part of a sting investigation of illegal computer gambling in that state.
"I really don't doubt that Mr. Dicks will return,'' Latella said at the bail hearing in Kew Gardens, in Queens County.
Sportingbet, based in London, is the second foreign company to be caught in a government crackdown in the U.S. on illegal online gambling. In July the then CEO of BetonSports, David Carruthers was arrested at Fort Worth Dallas airport and remains on bail in St. Louis at present, facing charges under a 22 count federal indictment that named 11 accuseds.
Dicks, who is a board member of several international companies, spent most of Friday afternoon processing bond papers to secure his formal release. Latella ordered him to remain in the New York metropolitan area as he awaits the September 14 hearing.
Dicks said the freedom of movement granted him by the judge was "...more than adequate.''
Dicks's lawyer, Peter Neiman of the Washington firm of WilmerHale, told the judge that his client's willingness to travel in the U.S. so soon after the BetonSports arrests (see previous Online-Casinos.com and InfoPowa reports) showed that Dicks didn't believe he had done anything wrong.
"There are serious questions regarding whether New York's extradition statute permits extradition for conduct allegedly committed entirely overseas,'' Neiman argued in requesting bail. He told the judge that Dicks hadn't been in Louisiana for more than 20 years, long before he joined Sportingbet.
Dicks' bail request was supported by two letters of recommendation. Steven J. Bilodeau, the chief executive of Standard Microsystem Corp., based in Hauppauge, New York, wrote that Dicks "...historically has exhibited the highest character and integrity.'' Dicks is a Standard Microsystem board member.
"Peter Dicks is a man of the utmost high character,'' Sanford Robertson, founder of Menlo Park, California-based Francisco Partners, wrote in the other letter.
Dicks joined Sportingbet as non-executive chairman in 2000. Sportingbet has a stock market value of GBP 1 billion ($1.9 billion). Following Dicks's arrest, the company had its shares on the London Stock Exchange suspended at its own request.
Sportingbet, which claims it has received no communications from American authorities on the charges Dicks faces or any related matter, said Friday it will continue to operate "as normal.''
After declining in an immediate reaction to the first news of the arrest, most online gambling stocks stabilised Friday.
