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CBA sues online bookie for $17 million

International All Sports (IAS) faces tough civil suit

Wednesday 2nd June 2004

Mark Read's online betting company, International All Sports (IAS) an online bookie is all gearing up to battle a tough lawsuit.

Read’s firm IAS, which is listed on the Australian Stock Exchange, provides telephone and internet bookmaking services, offering fixed-odds betting on racing and sporting events in Australia and overseas pampered Kim Faithful, a pathological gambler with expensive wine - delivered to his bank branch; and an invitation to the Melbourne Cup besides lavish gifts in return for the US$17 million he splurged on IAS’s website using his bank’s money.

Faithful, contrary to his second name, went on a gambling binge and grossly misused his capacity as a Commonwealth Bank branch manager by spending millions on IAS’s website. Read never complained as Faithful’s spent total constituted more than 65 per cent of the annual revenue of celebrity bookmaker, never questioning the source of the stolen funds, claims the lawsuit filed by the bank.

Though, the fraudulent bank manager was convicted last year of stealing US$19 million from CBA’s Karratha branch, in Western Australia's north, to fund five years of gambling. The Director of Public Prosecutions has lodged an appeal, arguing that the five-year sentence on Faithful was not enough.

Even the Aussie bank has lodged a claim in the Federal Court alleging IAS ‘wilfully shut its eyes to Faithfull's fraud, or consciously refrained from inquiry.’ In a related action, the bank is bringing an action for US$178,500 in bets made through the Totalisator Agency Board, alleging that a reasonable person would have known the funds were stolen.




Source: OnlineCasinoNews