Criminal past of former Betonsports insider
By Daniel Pimlott in New York
Published: April 10 2007 20:04 | Last updated: April 16 2007 15:13
Norman Steinberg, one of the men at the centre of the US investigation into Betonsports, the British online gambling business, proudly proclaimed his criminal past only months after the company completed its initial public offering.
“I’ve been in the can and been pushed around by the Feds ... and ya know what? ... I’m still ticking,” he wrote in the RX online gambling forum, under the nickname “Millenium Sportsbook” in September 2004.
The 57-year old had worked as a sports magazine publisher, and as a “tout” – someone selling their betting advice – before allegedly becoming involved in the online gaming industry.
Mr Steinberg is living in Costa Rica at the moment and holds Costa Rican citizenship , according to Marc Durant, his lawyer.
The US has already attempted to extradite Mr Steinberg from the Central American country but failed, according to Mr Durant.
In 1997, Mr Steinberg left his home in Pennsylvania for Costa Rica after he learnt he was under investigation for drugs offences, according to his indictment two years later.
In 1999 the Department of Justice charged him with using forged prescriptions at the pharmacy he owned in Philadelphia to procure, with the intent to distribute, more than 500,000 tablets of prescription drugs, including Xanax, the designer prescription drug, and Percocet, a drug with opiate-like qualities. Some of the prescriptions bore the forged signature of a dead doctor.
In 2002, after five years spent avoiding US justice in his Costa Rican refuge, Mr Steinberg was arrested in Miami. Facing a 31-year jail sentence and a $1.75m (£888,000) fine, Mr Steinberg co-operated with the justice department and acted as an informant, court documents reveal.
Mr Steinberg’s work as an informant is kept secret for his safety and so the nature of the investigations he assisted with are not known, although some involved Costa Rica. The US Drug Enforcement Agency and justice department would not comment on the nature of the information he provided.
But court documents say that Mr Steinberg assisted in investigations in three other jurisdictions outside of Pennsylvania, testified before a US grand jury and wore a secret recording device to gather information.
The Department of Justice described Mr Steinberg’s work for them as “dangerous”, adding he feared he would be murdered and feared for his family’s safety. He eventually pleaded guilty to a less serious but related crime, of omitting material information from required pharmacy records, in 2003, escaping with a $30,000 fine and time already served in jail. The other charges were dismissed.
Mr Steinberg was allowed to return to Costa Rica while on bail in 2003, although his punishment was not finalised until 2005. This raises questions over why the Department of Justice saw fit to allow him to leave the country, as the investigation into Betonsports has been going on since 2002.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/1ea9704e-e791-11db-8098-000b5df10621.html
By Daniel Pimlott in New York
Published: April 10 2007 20:04 | Last updated: April 16 2007 15:13
Norman Steinberg, one of the men at the centre of the US investigation into Betonsports, the British online gambling business, proudly proclaimed his criminal past only months after the company completed its initial public offering.
“I’ve been in the can and been pushed around by the Feds ... and ya know what? ... I’m still ticking,” he wrote in the RX online gambling forum, under the nickname “Millenium Sportsbook” in September 2004.
The 57-year old had worked as a sports magazine publisher, and as a “tout” – someone selling their betting advice – before allegedly becoming involved in the online gaming industry.
Mr Steinberg is living in Costa Rica at the moment and holds Costa Rican citizenship , according to Marc Durant, his lawyer.
The US has already attempted to extradite Mr Steinberg from the Central American country but failed, according to Mr Durant.
In 1997, Mr Steinberg left his home in Pennsylvania for Costa Rica after he learnt he was under investigation for drugs offences, according to his indictment two years later.
In 1999 the Department of Justice charged him with using forged prescriptions at the pharmacy he owned in Philadelphia to procure, with the intent to distribute, more than 500,000 tablets of prescription drugs, including Xanax, the designer prescription drug, and Percocet, a drug with opiate-like qualities. Some of the prescriptions bore the forged signature of a dead doctor.
In 2002, after five years spent avoiding US justice in his Costa Rican refuge, Mr Steinberg was arrested in Miami. Facing a 31-year jail sentence and a $1.75m (£888,000) fine, Mr Steinberg co-operated with the justice department and acted as an informant, court documents reveal.
Mr Steinberg’s work as an informant is kept secret for his safety and so the nature of the investigations he assisted with are not known, although some involved Costa Rica. The US Drug Enforcement Agency and justice department would not comment on the nature of the information he provided.
But court documents say that Mr Steinberg assisted in investigations in three other jurisdictions outside of Pennsylvania, testified before a US grand jury and wore a secret recording device to gather information.
The Department of Justice described Mr Steinberg’s work for them as “dangerous”, adding he feared he would be murdered and feared for his family’s safety. He eventually pleaded guilty to a less serious but related crime, of omitting material information from required pharmacy records, in 2003, escaping with a $30,000 fine and time already served in jail. The other charges were dismissed.
Mr Steinberg was allowed to return to Costa Rica while on bail in 2003, although his punishment was not finalised until 2005. This raises questions over why the Department of Justice saw fit to allow him to leave the country, as the investigation into Betonsports has been going on since 2002.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/1ea9704e-e791-11db-8098-000b5df10621.html
