14 DAY TRIAL // US authorities have closed down three of the most popular online poker websites in the world and indicted their founders on charges of wire fraud and money laundering.
The domain names of PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and Absolute Poker, were seized by FBI and the Department of Justice on Friday leaving millions of poker players around the world locked out.
According to the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Preet Baharara, who announced the indictment, the founders and owners of the three companies together with other accomplices are accused of violating the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006.
The indictment names eleven defendants, including Isai Scheinberg and Paul Tate of PokerStars, Raymond Bitar and Nelson Burtnick of Full Tilt Poker, and Scott Tom and Brent Beckley of Absolute Poker.
The prosecutors claim that by late 2009, the poker companies had developed a strategy to hide payments made by American online poker players via shell companies whose names did not imply any connection to online gambling.
The poker sites worked with small banks and payment processors who agreed to process transactions in exchange of investments into their companies.
For example, among the defendants is John Campos, the vice chairman of the board and part-owner of SunFirst Bank, a small, private bank from Saint George, Utah.
Campos is accused of agreeing to process online gambling transactions in return of a $10 million investment into SunFirst Bank and a $20,000 bonus for his assistance.
Since some of the defendants are not located in the United States, the authorities will most likely seek their extradition. The court also ordered the seizure of funds from 76 bank accounts located in 14 countries.
The defendants were charged with multiple counts of conspiring to violate the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGIEA), violating UIGIEA, operating illegal gambling sites, bank fraud, wire fraud and conspiring to launder money.