The Ontario Court of Justice has imposed the largest financial penalty for illegal gambling in Canadian history, levying fines and forfeitures totalling $300,000 against the kingpin of an interprovincial sports-betting syndicate.
Dario Zanetti, a Montreal restaurateur, agreed to make the payment as part of a huge plea-bargain.
He pleaded guilty to a single count of illegal bookmaking; charges against nine others were withdrawn.
The court heard that $20-million changed hands through the betting ring in five months; operators netted between $1-million and $2-million in profits during that time.
The operation obtained clients largely through word of mouth and took bets by phone, laptop computer and Palm Pilot on most major-league sports, including football, hockey and baseball.
Prosecutor Calvin Barry said several police forces, including the RCMP, OPP, Sûreté du Québec and local Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal forces, uncovered the gambling scheme during a joint organized-crime operation.
Evidence was gathered from wiretaps of key figures, and hoards of cash in U.S. and Canadian dollars were seized at homes in Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa between November of 2000 and April of 2001.
A dozen portly men in dark bomber jackets glowered from the oak pews in a dusty Old City Hall courtroom as Mr. Barry presented Mr. Justice Paul Bentley with a brief overview of the plea-bargain.
It included the withdrawal of gaming charges against nine men -- Francesco Cardinale, twins Martino and Antonio Caputo, Giuseppe Renda, Leonardo Bitondo, Vincenzo Loggozzo and Domenic Defillippo, Vincent Lopresti and Robert Marchese.
As the men left the courthouse after the hearing, two of them grabbed a newspaper photographer's camera and smashed it down the stone steps of the courthouse. Another flung a full cup of coffee into the lens of a TV camera.
Toronto Sun photographer Greg Henkenhaf said it will cost $3,000 to replace his camera and he will press charges against the men.
Judge Bentley told Mr. Zanetti, 36, that he will be jailed for 18 months if he defaults on the fine.
Mr. Barry told reporters the plea-bargain was part of a prosecution strategy to "hit these guys where it hurts -- in the pocketbook."
Between 5 and 8 per cent of the $20-million that flowed through syndicate hands in the five-month period of the investigation would be retained as profit, he said.