The Royal Court building

JERSEY’S Royal Court has unfrozen assets seized in 2007 in relation to an ongoing case in the United States against the founder of an internet gaming company.

Gary Kaplan, the founder of AIM-listed Betonsports plc, was extradited to the USA in 2007 and has been in custody since then on charges of flouting the US gambling laws. Sports betting on-line or by phone is illegal in most US states.

Mr Kaplan’s profits from the sale of Betonsports shares have been held in two Jersey trusts, the Bird Charitable Trust and the Bird Purpose Trust. Initially the trustee was Basel Trust Corporation and until recently Mr Kaplan was the protector of the trusts. The current trustees are based in Liechtenstein.

In May 2007 the Deputy Bailiff ordered a ‘saisie judiciaire’ of Mr Kaplan’s realisable property, under the Proceeds of Crime Law, and at the request of the US Department of Justice. Subsequently the Viscount, aided by an accountancy firm, took on the management of the trusts.

On 29 April the Bailiff, Sir Philip Bailhache, sitting with Jurats Le Breton and Clapham, having considered submissions from the parties involved, concluded that it was ‘inappropriate’ for the Island’s Viscount to remain in a position of responsibility but without control over the assets.

The money in Switzerland has been frozen by the authorities and the Costa Rica property is effectively ‘beyond reach’. The court also found that Basel Trust, having acted with propriety throughout, would otherwise be ‘condemned to some form of legal purgatory for an indefinite period’.