Kidnapping of Costa Rica Online Sports Betting Exec in the News — Weekly Round-up for October 26, 2018
By Brian Cullingworth, Last updated Oct 26, 2018
Still No Sign Of Kidnapped Costa Rica Sports Betting Exec (Update)
Wife confirms manager of 5Dimes asked to send $750,000 in Bitcoin to Cuba
The whereabouts and well-being of Costa Rica sports betting chief Sean “Tony” Creighton remained unknown Saturday, weeks after his reported kidnapping by a gang of five men whilst on his way to work (see previous InfoPowa reports).
On Friday a local newspaper reported that Creighton’s wife had asked the manager of Creighton’s company 5Dimes to send $750,000 in Bitcoin to Cuba after she was contacted on three occasions from that country. She has heard nothing since, and the police remain close-lipped on their investigation.
The newspaper claims that two men in the security industry – one who worked at 5Dimes – are currently being investigated, but there has been no offiical confirmation of this.
Costa Rica Sports Betting Exec’s Body Found (Update)
But no official confirmation yet
Costa Rica authorities investigating the the disappearance of 5Dimes sports book owner William Sean Creighton (43) have found his body, according to a brief report in the local English-language newspaper Costa Rica Star.
When InfoPowa went to press on Sunday morning there was little additional information and no apparent official confirmation that the body has been discovered, although local police have been investigating a complaint that he was kidnapped and held to ransom late last (September) month, reportedly by a gang of at least five men.
Creighton’s luxury Porsche SUV was later discovered crashed into a gate and his Cost Rica-born wife revealed that she had been contacted by the kidnappers from Cuba on three occasions, had organised a Bitcoin ransom worth $750,000 but heard nothing further.
Recent and as yet unconfirmed media reports have claimed that Creighton was taking a co-worker home late on the night he disappeared, and that he and his wife have been the subjects of US enforcement investigations linked to his company’s activities. The reports claim that in 2016 an investigation by the US Department of Homeland Security concluded that 5Dimes devised a mechanism to collect from and reward gamblers living in the United States with Amazon gift cards.
The reports describe Creighton, who came originally from Bridgeport in the USA, as a knowledgeable sport betting executive committed to the industry who started out as a successful player before becoming an operator and running his own Costa Rica-based company.