Canadian casino mogul held in a Dominican jail

Santo Domingo.- After an interrogation of more than two hours National District prosecutor Yeni Berenice Reynoso on Monday held Canada national Antonio Carbone, one of the executives of Dream Casinos Corporation in detention, charged with the attempted murder against lawyer Fernando Arturo Baez.

National Investigations Dept. (DNI) agents escorted the suspect to Reynoso’s office past the 2:55pm, after his arrest Sunday while waiting for a flight to Canada at Punta Cana airport.

Carbone and his brother Francesco, creators of an online betting scheme which prompted billionaire Michael DeGroote to invest US$112 million in Dominican Republic from 2010 to 2014, had been arrested on weapons charges in Canada.

Criminal background

It is not the first time that Antonio Carbone gets handcuffed. According to the CBC and Globe and Mail, both Carbones had pleaded guilty to the weapons charges in Toronto in July 2011, as the investments in Dominican Republic grew. They were sentenced to 60 days in prison.

The weapons were found by police during a search of the brothers’ tobacco business in 2009, as part of a tax evasion probe.

The tobacco business as well as one of house paints, Canada media reported, the brothers had been sought for reneging on bank loans and cooking the books.

In an interview for The Globe and Mail, Antonio Carbone said they bought the guns for protection in view of alleged death threats. "That was a matter of business; we have always been men of business, very aggressive."