Global Sports: Indictment Against Pokerstars, Full Tilt, and Absolute Poker

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Indictment Against Pokerstars, Full Tilt, and Absolute Poker

By Brent Beckley


The founders from the 3 largest Internet poker firms have already been indicted for bank fraud and funds laundering, federal law enforcement officials stated Friday.

The United States Attorney in New York unsealed the indictment against eleven folks, including the founders of PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and Absolute Poker. Additionally to charges of bank fraud and income laundering, the organizations are accused of illegal gambling offenses.

Email Print The sweeping 52-page indictment alleges that the corporations, based offshore, employed "fraudulent methods" to get about U.S. anti-gambling laws "and to receive billions of dollars from U.S. residents who gambled as a result of the Poker Organizations."

The authorities also issued restraining orders against much more than 75 bank accounts, and seized five Net domain names utilized by the firms to host their illegal poker games.

The businesses allegedly arranged for the dollars from U.S. gamblers to become disguised as payments to hundreds of non-existent on the internet merchants for the acquire of items such as jewelry and golf balls, in accordance with the indictment.

The defendants involve Isai Scheinberg and Paul Tate of Poker Stars; Raymond Bitar and Nelson Burtnick of Full Tilt Poker; and Scott Tom and Brent Beckley of Absolute Poker.

"As charged, these defendants concocted an elaborate criminal fraud scheme, alternately tricking some U.S. banks and effectively bribing other folks to assure the continued flow of billions in illegal gambling profits," U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said inside a statement.

Prosecutors also filed civil charges against the poker companies and many person "payment processors," in search of at least $3 billion in penalties.

Prosecutors also alleged that John Campos, a portion owner of SunFirst Bank in Utah, agreed to procedure Web gambling transactions in exchange for a $10 million investment in his bank by one particular from the other defendants.

Prosecutors mentioned they may be operating with Interpol and foreign agencies to secure the arrest from the remaining defendants, who're not presently inside the United States.

"These defendants, knowing full nicely that their enterprise with U.S. customers and U.S. banks was illegal, attempted to stack the deck," mentioned Janice Fedarcyk, FBI assistant director-in-charge. "They lied to banks regarding the true nature of their organization. Then, a number of the defendants found banks prepared to flout the law for a fee."




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