Neteller Founders Charged With "Laundering" Billions
 

Quote:

Two founders of a company which processes Internet gambling transactions were arrested and charged with laundering billions of dollars in gambling proceeds, federal prosecutors announced

And even more interesting these guys were both Canadian citizens:

Quote:

"Criminal prosecutions related to online gambling will be pursued even in cases where assets and defendants are positioned outside of the United States."

All the world are belong to the morality police in the USA!

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/01/...ess/gamble.php

what the fuck?! Just one step closer to "The Federation"

ouch thats gonna hurt with bubba probing there asses

All hail Furror Bush, err i mean President Bush

Or fucked up BORG ASSIMILATION. Geez.

Anytime I see this kind of quote:

"FBI Assistant Director Mark J. Mershon said the multibillion-dollar online gambling industry was "a colossal criminal enterprise masquerading as legitimate business."

I always think they are full of shit and trumping up BS charges to make it sound like something more than what it is. It's the same shit they do when they go after adult companies.. They use catchy terms like racketeering and other BS charges.

lol those guys were from calgary it think sucks to be them after the new bill eh

Epassporte next up? I've used epass to load my partypoker account so they are also doing the same "criminal act".

Welcome to yesterdays news BA.

BTW should I look for someone else for a gay co brand?

Ouch, Neteller seemed like such a legitimate company.

:1orglaugh :1orglaugh

That is kinda funny in a way. The usual attempted exaggeration by prosecutors "laundering billions of dollars" blah blah...

The truth is both individuals were operating a legal entity while the US government is still not in compliance with WTO judgements over restrictive trade practices in inhibiting movements of gaming funds across borders - yet still attempts to claim "money laundering".

But hey... we are talking about a rogue regime who can't comply with treaties it ratifies and where the government are fucking useless - so no surprise.

Neteller are a legitimate company in the eyes of the rest of the world - it's just a local US "issue" again :pimp

What's scary is I know people that do couple of 100 grand in transaction a month with neteller.

There will be a day that the US bumps into itself with such an arrogant stance.

I hate the hypocrisy in these press releases, just anything to play the media and public opinion!

holy shit

You may have a point there. Always thought about the "biz model" of Epass and it was not problem free - regardless of any claims.

You got a few US citizens involved and operating an offshore enterprise while remaining resident in the US - that is a very basic core problem. If the manager of the Royal Bank of Canada can be "kidnapped" on a US stop-over from Grand Caymen to Canada - Epass are a walkover..

Bond has been set at $5 million for the Neteller guy who lived in Malibu. Since Neteller allegedly processed $7.3 billion in 2005 with 95% being gambling transactions, it would not surprise me if this guy easily makes bail and then finds a way to disappear.

I don't get this case...it is the US players who are backing this recent Poker craze right? They advertise the shit out of it all over the US and Canada and probably everywhere else and then they turn around and punish the people who are making money with it how does this make any sense? Is the problem just that the money - which by the sounds of it is primarly US - is leaving the country? or is there another problem here? Anyone know what the main issues are in the case?

Why would they even travel to the US? If I was worth that much I'd buy a nice small (500 acres) plot of land and just retire there.

You have a lot of reading to catch up on, starting around oct 13th...

People who work or have worked in the online gambling business will know that the vast majority of it is corrupt.

They both had houses in the US. Perhaps a bit naive, but nothing compared to the actions taken by the US govt.

If anything is corrupt here in this story, it's people like Bill Frist and other government officials. Neteller is a legitimate business.

From what has been presented to the WTO by US "reps" - they want to make as many laws as possible to stop US citizens gaming. The purpose is to defend the existing gaming industry in the US.

In 2003 there was a case raised by the World Trade Org with the US on one side and Antigua, Canada, the UK and a few other countries on the other. This issue was restrictive trading with regard to movements of funds used in gaming transactions. In 2005 the WTO ruled against the US and then gave a time period for compliance. Three US laws exist which are in conflict with WTO treaties - The Wire Act, Travel Act and the other bullshit law they passed recently. The US has been proclaiming it is now compliant with it's obligations, but the opposing parties and the WTO do not agree that any attempt has been made to comply.

In the next couple of weeks the WTO is due to publish it's final penalty/sanction ruling for failure to comply. At the moment it appears the US is on a head-on collision course with the WTO and could face some damage in the process.

To quote a US legal opinion - "What Congress is really doing is putting the U.S. on a clear collision course with free trade and the WTO."

Silly conduct where individuals are being arrested on US soil for alleged offenses which are the exact nature of the US/WTO problem, either demonstration how stupid the DOJ is or they don't care about trading agreements.

As usual you are totally ignorant and your comments are meaningless. You know nothing about the gaming industry - so suggest you shut the fuck up and try and at least become a webmaster.

Calm down Webby, you're right but swearing like that doesn't suit you...

Some are blessed with tolerance Rhesus and tolerance escapes others :winkwink:

:1orglaugh :1orglaugh :1orglaugh

But reading one after the other idiot replies of Lazonby can have dire consequences... could even lead to murder....

Those Canadians sure love our American dollars --but they don't like our laws much.

Well...... you got a point DF and worth considering :1orglaugh :1orglaugh

i wonder if chris mallick is concerned right now? Which leads us to another question. Could there be fallout from this for the billers who have had or still have ties to processing systems that handled gaming transactions for the big poker sites? think about it

why is their website still up?

Neither of them are still executives of the company. One resigned in dec. 2005, the other mid 2006 ....

The company by itself is legal, so why would they close down ? They just have to keep their people ( staff & executives ) out of the USA, forever.

the bottom line is the casino's in the US are spending the money lobbying in washington. it might be time to spend a little bit of the online money and send people to washington to lobby since we all know the us probably makes up a fairly large % of online gambling. they have to spend some money to protect there business...

this is scary... where is this country going???

Neteller does about 90% of money transfers for gaming. This is much bigger than PartyPoker.com pulling out of the U.S. market.

Neteller pulls out of US:
http://uk.biz.yahoo.com/18012007/214...ler-pulls.html

That could be the hour of ePassporte (available on all the big poker sites), but how long can they resist any punishment?

do americans like their own laws? commies

My bank already blocks epassporte because they say it is used for gambling sites. Not like it is a small bank either, chase. Which bought out bankone which is where my accounts were set up orginally and they had no issues with epass. I can't even fund my epass account with my chase check card or checking account.

Oh please...thats pretty dumb.

If you really want to know who is behind the crackdown on gambling, you just have to think and follow the money. Its the land based gaming operations that stand to profit if the USA online gaming market is flattened. The USA govt doesnt take steps like this because of morality and ethical problems with gambling, they do it because there is money to be made. In this case its money that will be made by the corporate gambling institutions in the USA like MGM-Mirage, Harrahs Entertainment, Frontons and Parimutuels etc.

For those programs that use Epassporte (ourself included) this raises some real concerns. Due to the length of time it takes to wire money into Epassporte and the pressure to pay out immediately after accounting is done, most affiliate programs that use Epassporte consistently float large sums of money with Epassporte. This money isnt exactly FDIC insured and the threat of the USA gov't shaking this up with an indictment against Epassporte principals means more risk to this float money.

Within hours of the indictments against the Neteller principals, alot of online casinos were restricting access to funds held at Neteller.

This is crazy!!!

Whatever,i using moneybookers for gambling one way or another.

Great post :thumbsup

wow, I guess we're busy arresting people for online gambling since we have no other problems to deal with... like Iraq, drugs, CP... we need to waste our time on this crap

These guys should have the money to defend themselves quite well... :)

wow thats fucked :(

Same stuff with Canada and lumber.

You hit that nail on the head Nysus :thumbsup

what i find funny is that the US goes after companies that make 100's of millions or billions...

seems to me that the US just needs some more pocket change to play war games in the desert...

it amazes me that the US goes after gambling companies and processors, etc when they defraud their own citizens with un checked war contracts... they should be arresting the executives of Halliburton....

someday, i hope that the majority of americans wake up and fight the system to have some accountability...