One of the people that denied owning BetED last year has been sentenced to two years probation. David Parchomchuk pleaded guilty to the charge of running an illegal online gambling industry site and as such missed out on the maximum sentence of five years without parole, according to a post on the David Purdum Sports blog. The reduced sentence was also as a result of exposing all details about BetED’s operation and giving more colour on partner in crime Darren Wright.
The lawyer defending, Jeff Ifrah, commented that Parchomchuk was a programmer earning around $100,000 a year from ThrillX, the company that operated as BetED. He added: “Parchomchuk was never in charge of customer funds and never had access to client funds. The government has never stated otherwise. He is very concerned about customers who cannot access their funds.”
As part of the plea bargain, Parchomchuk disavowed any claim to the contents of three Panamanian bank accounts that are pending seizure in the action. (They were apparently used to pay “business expenses” and had nothing to do with customer funds.) Wright’s initial arraignment appearance is set for July 16 and if Parchomchuk’s plea bargain is anything to go by they’re unlikely to go easy on Wright.
The Department of Justice, meanwhile, are still insisting they didn’t seize customer funds and simply took computer money so have nothing to hide. So we’re assuming that means BetED players won’t be seeing any of that money in the near future and somewhere we’re pretty sure Covers.com owners Joe MacDonald and Paul Lavers are sitting pretty with their sacks full o’ cash.
