So says the one and only Don Groth, an obvious candidate for the top 2002 Darwin Award. On Sat I offered even money odds on an unusual prop bet, that the unidentified \"other person\" was someone who had some relationship or connection to Catskill OTB. No one on this site was dumb enough to take me up on it. Now it turns out that Groth has turned over the name of an account holder, who is a friend of rogue engr Harn & who Groth & Co. had been \"studying\" prior to BC day. It wasn\'t until Autotote fired Harn that Groth was able to \"connect the dots.\" Someone has to be helping this guy get dressed in the morning. Under these circumstances, for Groth not to immediately consider the possibility of some connection between the fix six and the man he was \"studying\" is criminal studipity & negligence rolled into one. BTW, what Groth is anxious to clear up are the reports that he knew Davis before the BC. Interesting that he doesn\'t want anyone to think that, isn\'t it?
What I didn\'t know, because it wasn\'t mentioned in the TBred Times article, is that the \"other individual\" is suspected of cashing two fraudulent pk6s wagers through Catskill OTB before the BC. These two are different from the two Sar pk6s which have been mentioned previously in the press, according to Mike Brunker\'s msnbc article online. BTW, Mike is rarely mentioned, but deserves some credit for the job he is doing covering this story. Doesn\'t that clinch it for Groth? Not only was he supposedly studying this guy beforehand, but he was studying him because he was suspected of doing exactly what Davis & Harn did, & yet Groth still couldn\'t connect the dots. Hasn\'t it been obvious to everyone from day one that there was a zero chance that these guys cooked up this scheme & then decided to try it out for the very 1st time on racing\'s biggest day? This man truly is too stupid to continue living without hurting himself or others. Next up, after I calm down & get some time, is Scientific Games, the biggest culprit in this entire mess.
Isn\'t one considered innocent until proven guilty in most areas of this country? Did anyone ever stop to consider:
A. While the suspect was initially trying to fix the pick six when he entered the first four singles, he actually picked the correct numbers?
B. In a bizarre hazing ritual at Drexel, the two were forced to spend an evening with Andrew Beyer, and therefore legitimately handicapped these races?
Think about it.
CNN just reported that the lead investigator at the FBI\'s fraud/gaming unit (David Furman) once uttered the phrase \"computer geek\" which would invalidate any and all evidence collected...
In all parts of the Country and in most of our \"possessions.\" But innocense in a criminal sense and innocense in an actual sense are two different things entirely. They\'re guilty both ways, and it\'s just a matter of time before one of the conspirators cuts a deal & spills the beans. How much time is the question & I have already seen & had discussions about the possibility of buying the rights of those who had 5 of 6 for a lot less than they will eventually be worth. That such a possibility exists tells you something about the state of litigation in this country. In this case, however, there is absolutely no chance that the powers that be would pay these guys unless and until they were ordered to do so by the US Supreme Ct, which isn\'t going to happen.
P.S. I assume you\'re either being humorous or haven\'t seen some of the stories. The original bet Davis entered did not include the winners of the 1st 4 legs. BTW, the Autote story is a depressing and familar one, & it was disheartening to learn that on 9/16 NYRA signed an extension of Autotote\'s contract to the end of the 2004 fall meet.
NYRA has a good case to back out of that contract if they\'d like.
1-Fraud
2-Incompetance
Still can\'t get over the methods these jerks were using to transmit betting data.
Now that I\'ve had an opportunity to look into the matter, I\'ve gotten over it and would not be surprised to learn that not only were these jerks, as you so aptly put it, using outdated technology, but that they also invested little or nothing in the kind of internal controls which should have been in place to detect a fraud of this nature. In the 10/31 conf call Weil said that the \"system worked\", which apparently means that if someone from the NYRA contacts the BC/NTRA, and the BC/NTRA demand an investigation and that payment be held up, then the president of Autotote will go on record as saying the bet is legit and should be paid until reporters and industry reps force them to actually do the kind of investigation which led to Harn\'s dismissal. That dismissal, I am convinced, was for the reason 1st reported, failure to cooperate in Autotote\'s internal investigation, and not because Autotote had paper or computer evidence that Harn was the culprit. My belief is not just based on the fact that Autotote had 18 other programmers, or the reports that the security logs are missing, but also on the timing and nature of the dry run fixes described by Mr Drape in his article today. Weil also went on record in the 10/31 call that even if no one had said anything about the BC fix, Autotote\'s security would have eventually uncovered what happened, and pinpointed the culprit. At the time, what I wanted to know was the time period covered by \"eventually.\" Now we know that more than 3 weeks passed between the 1st dry run fix and the BC fix, and that eventually must mean at least a month. Given Autotote\'s handling of this matter, isn\'t it equally plausible that there was no system to speak of in place, and that Weil\'s statement was as much as anything an effort to prevent a drop in the share price? Perhaps that\'s a question that Autotote\'s new PR firm would like to answer, assuming they can pull themselves away from their efforts to spin this as a \"human tragedy\" and a case where the racing industry didn\'t pay enough to expect security. The only way my confidence is going to be restored is if Weil and Autotote are no longer involved, and I suspect that I\'m not the only one who feels that way.