Three largest online poker sites indicted and shut down by FBI

[NHSparky]

Three largest online poker sites indicted and shut down by FBI



April 15, 2011 | 12:32 pm
(c) LATimes.com

LINK

(too short to excerpt)

The founders of the three largest online poker sites were indicted by the FBI on Friday in what could serve as a death blow to the thriving industry.

Eleven executives at PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker were charged with bank fraud and money laundering in an indictment unsealed in a Manhattan court. Two of the executives were arrested on Friday morning in Utah and Nevada. Federal agents are searching for the others.

Prosecutors are seeking to immediately shut down the sites and to eventually send the executives to jail and to recover $3 billion from the companies. By Friday afternoon Full Tilt Poker’s site displayed a message explaining that “this domain name has been seized by the F.B.I. pursuant to an Arrest Warrant.”

The online gambling industry has taken off over the last decade, drawing an estimated 15 million Americans to bet online.

In 2006 Congress passed a law prohibiting online gambling. Most of the leading sites found ways to work around the law using foreign banks, but prosecutors allege that in doing so they broke the law.

“These defendants concocted an elaborate criminal fraud scheme, alternately tricking some U.S. banks and effectively bribing others to assure the continued flow of billions in illegal gambling profits,” Preet Bharara, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, said in a statement.

Poker fans took to Twitter in droves, worried about the money in their online gaming accounts, fretting that online poker's days were at an end.

"Well the good news is I think I only had about $300 left on the online poker sites overall," tweeted Jimi Schindler of Madison, Wis. "Maybe I'll see that money?!!?"

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Complete and utter crap.  Happy Tax Day, everyone.

[thelaughingman]

If they were circumventing long-standing laws through those means, I'd say it's a pretty solid case against those sites.  While I'm sure it sucks for the people who lost money, perhaps it will be a lesson.

[NHSparky]

Frankly, the UIGEA (Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act) of 2006, which was actually a rider in the Safe Port Act, not a stand-alone bill (because the Republicans knew they'd never get it passed alone) is a load of horseshit.

Internet poker was around for nearly a decade before UIGEA.  Also, keep in mind that there are literally DOZENS of online gambling websites, even now some that still allow US players.

And why is it exactly that even with DC allowing expanded gambling, they're going after this NOW, nearly five years after initial passage, and over a year after "full enforcement" went into effect?

[Scoobie]

Web king behind FBI raids
 Paul Toohey and NewsCore
 The Courier-Mail
 April 16, 2011 12:00AM


A FORMER Queensland internet king is believed to have been a key figure behind FBI action against three major gambling websites in the United States.

Daniel Tzvetkoff, who had been facing 75 years jail in the US, has done a deal with prosecutors which has seen him freed on bail and living in a secret New York location.

The Courier-Mail reported today that the deal came after Tzvetkoff  - a Brisbane boy wonder, who started a company with school mates at 13  - became embroiled in a massive, $543 million stew of money laundering, bank fraud and conspiracy that could bring down the world of online gambling.

<snip>
The Courier-Mail reported today that two of those companies Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars, had been seeking $100m they believed Tzvetkoff had taken from them.

Tzvetkoff was arrested in April last year  and charged with money laundering, bank fraud and conspiracy for processing $543m in illegal internet gambling earnings through his British Virgin Islands corporation, Intabill, the trading arm of his now liquidated Brisbane company, BT Projects.

He was mysteriously bailed last August, and US authorities are using his inside knowledge of the gambling industry to go after gaming companies.

Snip and Link

No honor among thieves, it would seem. 

[JLO]

Three largest online poker sites indicted and shut down by FBI

Hey now!  Just when did this guy tear himself away long enough to drive and get a Starbucks I wonder.   

[FreeBorn]

Online poker isn't going anywhere. Sure, the government wants you to think they are putting an end to it so they look respectable but that's not what is happening here. Big brother is taking out the competition and taking over the racket.

Online poker will soon be back, under new management and deemed "safe" because it is now regulated. They're looking out for you, after all. Your safety and protection is what the government has at heart in this.

Remember the neighborhood "numbers" games? Broken up by the feds and the crooks sent to the pen. Done deal, right? Wrong. The "numbers" weren't broken up by the feds, they were taken over by the feds.
Today they exist as the daily lottery games in every state.
BTW, back in the old neighborhood the daily payout was 80% of the take. Today? Not so much.

[NHSparky]

Apparently you don't have a PokerStars account.  Good luck trying to play a tournament for even 10 cents.

[Scoobie]

Apparently you don't have a PokerStars account.  Good luck trying to play a tournament for even 10 cents.

Nope, not happening. I tried last night.

[NHSparky]

Nope, not happening. I tried last night.

There goes our retirement fund.

[Freeper]

Nice to know that we are being protected from online gambling.
 

[DumbAss Tanker]

I don't play or care personally, I just don't see how this even makes sense as a use of enforcement resources that are supposedly so scarce we can't put a dent in "Medical marijuana" fraud and its funding of drug cartels, and the related border control issues ICE can't seem to do a damned thing about.

[Eupher]

The perspective of this grandstanding "bust" pales in comparison to the horde of illegals that continue to invade our country.