The US Department of Justice has charged the owners of three of the largest Internet gambling sites for violating a cacophony of laws, including anti-gambling laws, money laundering and bank fraud, Reuters reports. The sites include Full Tilt Poker, Absolute Poker and PokerStars.
New York prosecutors have issued restraining orders against 76 bank accounts in 14 countries that they say these companies used to launder billions of dollars in illegal gambling funds. Five Internet domains associated with the sites have been seized.
The indictment includes 11 individuals from the three Internet gambling sites. The Justice Department has brought forth a civil complaint for money laundering through which it seeks $3 billion held by the companies. Authorities say these people used “fraudulent methods” to fool banks into processing the funds.
Two of the 11 charged have been arrested, and law enforcement agents expect at least one of the men to turn himself in. Eight others currently reside outside of the United States, and have not yet been brought into custody.
Those charged include: Isai Scheinberg and Paul Tate of PokerStars; Raymond Bitar and Nelson Burtnick of Full Tilt Poker; Scott Tom and Brent Beckley of Absolute Poker; and Ryan Lang, Ira Rubin, Bradley Franzen, Chad Elie and John Campos, all of whom are said to have been involved with processing the illegal funds.
The maximum penalties for the various charges brought forth against these individuals range from five years in prison and a $250,000 fine to 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine.
“These defendants, knowing full well that their business with U.S. customers and U.S. banks was illegal, tried to stack the deck,” Fedarcyk said. “They lied to banks about the true nature of their business. Then, some of the defendants found banks willing to flout the law for a fee. The defendants bet the house that they could continue their scheme, and they lost.”
The crackdown on these sites is expected to have significant effects on the US poker industry, as well as the millions of poker players who used the sites.
“On behalf of the millions of poker players across the country, we are shocked at the action taken by the U.S. Department of Justice today against online poker companies and will continue to fight for Americans’ right to participate in the game they enjoy,” said the Poker Players Alliance in a press release. “Online poker is not a crime and should not be treated as such. We are currently gathering all of the information around today’s announcement and will offer detailed analysis when the full facts become available.”
The man said to be responsible for facilitating the FBI’s investigation of the poker industry is 28-year-old Daniel Tzvetkoff, who became a prized informant after being arrested for masterminding a system for processing illegal funds between US gamblers and websites.
Some Internet gambling sites remain active, however, including Cake Poker and Bodog. PokerStars has relaunched under the domain PokerStars.eu, and is working normally at the time of this writing.
Online poker has been illegal in the US since the passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act in 2006.
THe interesting part is the .net sites are up and still running…
There is only one reason that any government bar attorney gives a beat down like this, and it is so the greaseball Federal Banking government can get their hands on a sizable portion of the profits. The players in the global banking scam of western society are becoming extremely desperate, as they know the pyramid scheme they have been playing against humanity is reaching a crash point and if they don't get a bunch of revenue fast they are going to be exposed for what they are. Do you think Obama ordering congress to raise the debt limit or there will be a global recession is just some hiccup in the economy. It's going viral, and if you don't know it then start researching. You'll have plenty of time now that poker is gone.
That said, I play FTP regularly and I do not win consistently. I don't claim to be a poker god like many online do (reminds me of softball league with every fatass being a superstar). Anyway, my real life poker game is a whole lot different. I attribute that to the fact that these sites deal dynamically. When you play at an table with a dealer and a deck of cards, the dealer deals from the top of the deck in sequence post shuffle. When you play online, the servers deal from a supposedly random draw of the cards that are remaining in the deck at the time. That means that the play can be manipulated. If it can be manipulated then it is manipulated. This is big money, c'mon. I've read that the manipulations in play are to even out the field, make it so the same seasoned players don't continually take down everyone else and that keeps the less experienced players interested. That seems honorable, but in context to a game of skill and chance which relies on the integrity of the tools (cards and chips) and the dealer, it is a crock and every single site that dynamically deals should be brought to its knees. Imagine if you were playing a game in Vegas and the dealer looked through the rest of the deck then pulled out a card for the river. You would have a conniption. Something to think about…
Poker Stars and its software cheats ppl by using totaly bullshit card combinations that lands in player’s hands. 3x AA in 15min there is normal for them or something like that. 0% randomness there is only business. Poker Stars is just fraud thats all.
Glad this is the top priority for our government. Those outta control poker players are destroying the country.
Bizarre that it’s legal in Vegas, on Reservations and is featured as a “sport” on ESPN but this nefarious crime had to be stopped when it’s online.
I hate to say this. But what I think is our goverment is taking over our lifes. ( and has been doing so for years ) I realy do not know if these site have been doing wrong. But I have enjoyed playing with them. I will say tho on Absolute Poker the stole my money. I could not remember my pass word and I tried and tried to retrive it. I could not so I called them and they flat out said there was nothing they could do. I was psst but what could I do I ate it and went on.
with. that is my opinion anyhow. I surely do hope all this get taken care of for me a United State Citizen Loves to play online poker. But my goverment seems to think they can run my life. Witch they do! we are no longer a free country and we pay up the bing bang for there stupid spending. okay I wont go politcal but surely want too!!! I say bring FULL TILT BACK NOW, let us have some fun! we are not america anymore not the one I grew
in
I'm against both parties here…..I have no doubt that alot of the online poker sites are shady…….however,it really pisses me off that the government cna tell us that this is illegal…….this takes place in quite a few states legally…..so what the government is saying is that unless we can tax it and get our share,that this will not be tolerated……isn't this what organized crime does for illegal activities in their neighborhoods……we want our share or we'll shut u down……..
wow. hammer city.
The .net sites are and have always been “play” money. You couldn’t get real money on those.
Funny some of the same claims about lying and fraud were also done by huge banks and for trillions, I’m so glad adults choosing to gamble at only their own risk was stopped instead of financial system collapsing risks wall agree took!
wow! what nob couldn’t see that coming?
i hope they all go to jail!!! full tilt has been stealing money from my bank account. i reported them to my bank and had any future transactions blocked, once they couldnt make any more unauthorized transactions they shut my account down and will not let me get the remaining money out of my full tilt account. the same thing happened to my girlfriend, she was the one who told me about it. i wonder how many others they were stealing from?????
So why are you playing with them if you feel like that … People like you have no common since!