British gambling executive to finish sentence in England

A British gambling executive convicted in a bribery plot is being transferred from a US prison to serve the remainder of his sentence in England, his lawyer said.

Nigel Potter was the chief executive of Wembley PLC, which had been the British parent company of the Lincoln Park gambling facility in Lincoln, Rhode Island.

Potter and the park's former general manager, Daniel Bucci, were convicted in August 2005 of conspiring to pay up to US$4m (€2.95m) to former Rhode Island House Speaker, John Harwood.

Prosecutors said the money, which was never paid, was intended to win support for more gambling machines at the park and to ensure opposition to a casino that was being planned by the Narragansett Indian Tribe.

Defence lawyers said Potter and Bucci had only preliminary discussions about the payments and that the money had been intended as a retainer fee or performance bonus for Harwood's law partner, Dan McKinnon, who did legal work for the park.

Potter began serving a three-year prison sentence in November 2005.

An appeals court refused last year to overturn the verdict or grant him a new trial.

Potter is being returned to England under an international treaty that permits prisoners who were convicted in a foreign nation to apply for a return to their home countries, defence lawyer Leonard O'Brien said.

Potter has been moved from a Pennsylvania prison to the Metropolitan Correction Centre in New York City and could be transferred to England within weeks, O'Brien said.

Lincoln Park has since been renamed Twin River and is under new ownership.