Feds raid online poker sites
Online poker took a huge hit this past weekend when the FBI stepped in and charged the founders of 3 of the largest online gambling sites with bank fraud, money laundering and illegal gambling offenses by US authorities.
11 people from Isle-of-Man based Pokerstars, Ireland-based Full Tilt, and Costa-Rica based Absolute Poker have been charged with running operations that violated the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006. Three of these individuals (US citizens) have been arrested, and the DOJ is working with foreign law enforcement offices to arrest a further eight US citizens and foreign nationals in connection with the charges.
The FBI seized 5 poker site domains and have issued orders freezing 76 accounts in 14 counties.
Quote:
Authorities say those indicted disguised money from US gamblers as payments to hundreds of non-existent online merchants selling items like jewelry and golf balls.
The companies deceived banks into processing the money by creating fake corporations and web sites. When the banks detected and shut them down, they worked with the principals of smaller banks offering them investment in return for handling payments.
The indictment names one bank, SunFirst Bank in St George, Utah, whose vice chairman of the board and part owner John Campos allegedly agreed to process gambling transactions in return for a $10m investment in SunFirst, which would give them a more than 30 per cent ownership stake in the bank. Campos also requested and received a $20,000 "bonus" for his assistance, according to US law enforcement.
One of the associates of the individual who approached Campos said in an email they had "purchased" SunFirst and "were looking to purchase" "a grand total of 3 or 4 banks" to process payments.
The full PR is on the FBI's website at:
http://www.fbi.gov/newyork/press-releases/2011/manhattan-u.s.-attorney-charges-principals-of-three-largest-internet-poker-companies-with-bank-fraud-illegal-gambling-offenses-and-laundering-billions-in-illegal-gambling-proceeds
