U.S. Attorney for Missouri Catherine Hanaway is reported to be turning the screws on what is left of the BetonSports empire, says online gambling portal Gambling911, quoting unidentified sources believed to be close to the company.

The last confirmed news on the Department of Justice vs BetonSports issue (see earlier InfoPowa reports) was that lawyers were close to hammering out a settlement, but the sources quoted by the gambling portal suggest that chief prosecutor Hanaway will have none of it. 

One source is quoted as saying: "She (Hanaway) wants them to pay a substantial fine. BetonSports was publicly traded.  They reported through public disclosures millions and millions of dollars leaving the US unaccounted for, untaxed."

The report goes on to claim that BetonSports has:

* Not settled its obligations to players yet - even as regards return of deposits

* Only half of the company's employees, most of whom were retrenched, have been paid.

* Group company Easybets has "quietly severed ties with BoS and changed its name."

* Company assets have been sold off and the company is struggling financially

BetonSports, a London listed company, went from a billion dollar online gambling corporate hero to zero in a remarkably short time following the arrest of its then CEO David Carruthers during a stop-in-transit at a Fort Worth, Texas airport.  The warrant for his arrest, together with 11 other people including the founder of BetonSports, Gary Kaplan was issued by a grand jury in St. Louis and indicted the accuseds on 22 counts under US federal and state law.

Kaplan remains a fugitive, whilst after almost a month in detention Carruthers was released on heavy bail and condition that he remained in St. Louis. He was dismissed by the BoS board of directors shortly after his arrest and is reportedly determined to fight to prove his innocence in a court of law.

Part of the legal proceedings that followed the arrest of Carruthers included the issue of a temporary restraining order by a St. Louis court that stopped BetonSports from accepting any further U.S. business, and required it to return deposits to all U.S. players. Whilst the first part of the order (which has since been repeatedly extended) has been obeyed, the second has apparently not.