Thread: The FBI Seizes The Three Biggest U.S. Poker Websites

The FBI Seizes The Three Biggest U.S. Poker Websites




04-15-2011 • BusinessInsider.com/

The U.S. Attorney for New York has indicted the founders the three largest online poker companies in the U.S. and seized their websites in a major crackdown on internet gambling. The indictment charges eleven defendants — including the founders of PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and Absolute Poker — with bank fraud, money laundering, and illegal gambling offenses. In addition, the domains for FullTiltPoker.net and AbsolutePoker.com have been seized by the FBI and replaced by this pleasant reminder that gambling is illegal. The indictment essentially spells out a scheme by the poker companies to set up phony bank accounts to process illegal gambling transactions, either by lying to the banks about the nature of the transactions or by targeting struggling banks to who need the money to stay afloat. In addition to the criminal charges, the US Attorney filed a civil suit seeking $3 billion in damages. The FBI froze 75 bank accounts and seized five websites, in addition to the arrests that were made today. The bank and wire fraud charges carry a sentence of up to 30 years in prison.




Reported by Jack Gregson
http://www.freedomsphoenix.com/News/087 ... ?From=News

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The FBI Seizes The Three Biggest U.S. Poker Websites
Dashiell Bennett | Apr. 15, 2011, 2:02 PM | 28,803 | comment 53



Full Tilt Poker Takedown


The U.S. Attorney for New York has indicted the founders of the three largest online poker companies in the U.S. and seized their websites in a major crackdown on internet gambling.

Click here to read about the FBI informant who brought them down

The indictment charges eleven defendants — including the founders of PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and Absolute Poker — with bank fraud, money laundering, and illegal gambling offenses.

In addition, the domains for all three sites have been seized by the FBI and replaced by this pleasant reminder that gambling is illegal.

The indictment essentially spells out a scheme by the poker companies to set up phony bank accounts to process illegal gambling transactions, either by lying to the banks about the nature of the transactions or by targeting struggling banks who needed the money to stay afloat.

In addition to the criminal charges, the US Attorney filed a civil suit seeking $3 billion in damages. The FBI froze 75 bank accounts and seized five websites.

Three of the 11 named defendants were arrested today. The rest are not currently in the United States.

The bank and wire fraud charges carry a possible sentence of up to 30 years in prison.

Click here to read more about the FBI informant who may have brought them down

http://www.businessinsider.com/online-p ... aud-2011-4




Kathyet

Meet The Boy Genius Who Just Took Down The Online Poker Industry
Dashiell Bennett | Apr. 15, 2011, 3:08 PM | 89,186 | comment 85


Daniel Tzvetkoff online poker fbi

Image: Courier-Mail


The internet is still coming to grips with the huge online gambling bust that just took down the U.S.'s three biggest online poker sites.

But Australia's Courier-Mail newspaper already has the scoop on the one man who may have single-handedly built the online industry ... then handed it to the U.S. government on a platter.

According to this story, Daniel Tzvetkoff was a young Australian entrepreneur who set up the payment processing schemes used by the biggest poker sites to handle their (mostly illegal) transactions.

He is described by those who know him as a "boy wonder" and "genius" who started his first company at 13 and knew all the intricacies of e-commerce.

He made Full Tilt Poker and Poker Stars millions of dollars — and made as much as $150,000 a day for himself — but then got even more greedy and started taking their. They sued him, accusing Tzvetkoff of taking more than $100 million of their money.

Then last April, Tzvetkoff was arrested in Las Vegas and charged with the same crimes those sites' founders were charged with today: money laundering, bank fraud, wire fraud. As an Australian citizen with a lot of cash, he was considered a flight risk and denied bail.

Then after a "secret" meeting with prosecutors last August, he was suddenly out on bail. And now his former colleagues are the ones facing serious prison time.

Daniel Tzvetkoff knows the operations of these poker sites inside and out. It was knowledge of the financial industry that allowed them to operate. He's the one man positioned to give the U.S. Attorneys everything they needed to take down their businesses.

And it looks like that's exactly what he did, cooperating with the authorities to avoid his own lengthy jail sentence.

All the major gambling prosecutions in the U.S. since Tzvetkoff's arrest have been run out of the office of Arlo Devlin-Brown, the Manhattan Asst. U.S. Attorney who is Tzvetkoff's "handler."

According to a source, Tzvetkoff "knows how to reverse-engineer transactions to determine its original source," making him very valuable to investigators.

And the biggest irony of all? It's been rumored that the only reason the FBI got their hands on him is because Full Tilt or Poker Stars (the companies he used to work for and stole from) tipped off the FBI that he was going to be traveling to the United States last year.

They ratted him out ... and he turned the tables. No honor among thieves.

And as the Courier Mail put it, if this were still the old days, he'd be buried in the Las Vegas desert right now.

SEE ALSO: Will Online Poker Players Ever See Their Money Again?


http://www.businessinsider.com/boy-geni ... dal-2011-4



Kathyet

Will Online Poker Players Ever See Their Money Again?

Dashiell Bennett | Apr. 16, 2011, 10:22 AM | 5,976 | comment 18


After the three biggest poker websites in the U.S. were shut down on Friday, the big question that every gambler wants answered is: "What about my money?"

Thousands of players had money on deposit with these websites — money that had been won or not yet gambled, and still technically belongs to the customers.

With the websites offline, gamblers have now lost access to those accounts. According to posters on some poker forums, a few players were able to request a withdraw of their money before the sites went completely dark, but since that usually involves the printing and mailing of a physical check, no one knows for sure if they'll ever see that cash.

According to the indictments, the Justice Department froze about 75 bank accounts belonging to the three websites. The exact amount of money in each account and who that money actually belongs to is not known at this time. It will probably take a thorough accounting of each company's records to know exactly where it came from and where it should be allocated.

We talked to a spokesperson in the U.S. Attorney's office who would not comment on the specific issue of customer accounts, but did provide a copy of both the criminal indictment and the civil complaint. We haven't yet fully digested the 80-page document, but it does appear that the investigation is targeting the profits made by the poker sites. They have not being asked to forfeit that money given to them for gambling. There's no mention of seizing all assets or forcing the businesses to cease operations completely — unless that becomes necessary to pay their $3 billion in sought penalties.

In 2007, a similar case was brought against Netteller, an online payment processor that was also accused of working with gambling sites. They eventually reached a settlement with the government, paid fines, and stayed in business, and (as far as we can tell) most of their customers did get their money back.

The good news for gamblers is that these sites can still operate in the countries they were set up in and can still deal with poker players in other nations where online gambling is not illegal. That means it's highly unlikely that these companies will completely go out of business.

If that's the case, the money is still there. (A statement from Poker Stars does say the money is safe, but that message seems mostly directed toward European players who can still gamble.) Eventually, the sites will probably be allowed to resume business in U.S., provided they don't offer "real money" games to Americans.

So once the criminal and civil cases are resolved and all the accounting is sorted out, players will likely be able to get their money back... but that could be a long, long time from now.

If there are any poker players out there who had money with one of the affected sites — Poker Stars, Full Tilt Poker, Absolute Poker — let us know your experience. Were you able to access your account, request a withdrawal, or actually get a check? We'd love to hear from you.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/online-p ... z1Ji6ozsKk



Kathyet

And as the Courier Mail put it, if this were still the old days, he'd be buried in the Las Vegas desert right now

That may just depend on who he may have turned in ,that this could still happen......

This works better leaves the field open for the big gaming giants to control things wouldn't you say?????


Kathyet

This works better leaves the field open for the big gaming giants to control things wouldn't you say?????

It makes me think of the legislation that Harry Reid tried to pass through as soon as he re-elected. Pay back to his casino buddies?

The bill was to allow on-line gambling, BUT only for established gaming houses. So far it has fallen on its butt, but with this turn of events a revival may be on the way. Keep and eye on Harry.....

Originally Posted by kathyet

This works better leaves the field open for the big gaming giants to control things wouldn't you say?????


Kathyet

I am sure the void will be filled by someone out there.

Reid is still working on giving this to his buds here in Vegas

thats why they took these guys out

These well established sites provided to much competition

I would assume if someone dug deep enough they would find a pretty
big conspiracy deal with our high govt officials

I use to play on poker stars , I just played the fake money stuff now and then , but when I quit I had about 500k built up

I'm a pretty good player, I've actually won small turneys here in Vegas

It seems they switched the main sites to wwfulltilpokercouk and pokerstarseu, the software also has been updated to block deposits from US players temporarily.

Welcome aboard nvcitizen