Racing Services Founder Reports to Prison

A few days after a federal judge denied granting her a new trial, Susan Bala, the founder and former president of North Dakota's Racing Services Inc., reported to prison Sept. 30 to begin serving a 27-month sentence.

Bala, 51, requested a new trial in August, claiming she found "newly discovered evidence" documents that show she never intended to illegally operate her Fargo-based simulcast sports-betting business, the Bismarck Tribune reported. In August, Bala provided U.S. District Judge Ralph Erickson with 150 documents she said support her request.

Some of the documents involve BRIXCORP, a Costa-Rica-based company created to develop an Internet-based wagering system for Racing Services, the newspaper reported.

The records detail work that went into developing the company. Bala claimed in her motion for a new trial that the records show federal prosecutors were wrong when they characterized BRIXCORP as a nonexistent entity used to conceal illegal gambling proceeds. The judge ruled the vast majority of the documents are not new evidence, the Tribune reported.

On Feb. 4, a jury convicted Bala of 12 felonies for running an illegal gambling parlor in south Fargo. Prosecutors said the parlor, Global Contact Inc., handled $99 million in bets between October 2002 and April 28, 2003, when federal agents raided the site.