Betonsports shared office with Mafia-link firm

Betonsports Plc shared an address, a lawyer, and technical support with an online gambling firm with alleged Mafia links.

Betonsports rented office space in Costa Rica to Safe Deposit Sports (SDS), provided it with technical support and used the same British lawyer.

In May last year, US prosecutors accused 36 people connected to SDS of running an illegal gambling operation. The indictment said that Bonnano acting boss Anthony Urso, or Tony Green, received a monthly tribute from the firm. The Bonnanos are one of the five biggest New York Mafia families, according to US prosecutors.The indictment is available here.

Urso was sentenced to 20 years in September for murder and racketeering. More from The Times.

According to posts in a chatroom by a Barry Clark, who posts as the owner of SDS: "As I have stated before BOS [Betonsports] and my companies are independently owned...Along with the space here at The Mall I get the benefit of tech support from BOS...Also they maintain my internet capabilities, along with my website." The chatroom page is here, almost at the bottom of the page.

A spokeswoman for Betonsports told The Register: "Betonsports has about 1,000 square feet of office space in Costa Rica - some of which was sub-let to SDS. When management heard the allegations about SDS in May 2005 they were immediately asked to leave."

She said suggestions that they shared a lawyer were tenuous.

Betonsports former CEO David Carruthers, recently arrested in the US while changing planes en route to Cosa Rica, is in court later today in St Louis trying to get released on bail. The firm has sacked him, on legal advice, but he is entitled to a year's salary and the company will claim his legal expenses from its insurers.

There is a separate hearing into the injunction which is stopping Betonsports from taking bets.

US authorities are still trying to trace company founder Gary Kaplan. ®