"BIG 3" FOUNDERS OF ONLINE POKER WERE INDICTED AND ARRESTED

Online Poker, the "THE BIG THREE" who founded PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker were charged by the US Department of Justice of bank fraud, money laundering and illegal gambling. Restraining Orders were issued against over 75 accounts used by the online companies and their payment processors including FIVE Internet domains. 

The indicted were Isai Scheinberg, Raymond Bitar, Scott Tom, Brent Beckley, Nelson Burtnick, Paul Tate, Ryan Lang, Bradley Franzen, Ira Rubin, Chad Elie and John Campos who, each of them  will be facing  four counts of every offense. 

Scheinberg and Tate are indicted for representing PokerStars while Bitar and Burtnick represents Full Tilt Poker and Tom and Beckley represents Absolute Poker. Lang, Rubin, Lang, Franzen and Elie are identified as the persons who ran payment processors.  

 

Probable cause were found against the 11 defendants for and in  violation  of Illegal Gambling Business Act of 1955 and the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 by operating  an Illegal Gambling Business and for conspiring to commit bank and wire fraud including conspiracy of money laundering. 

These charges carry hefty penalties and the maximum penalty for violation of the UIGEA  and operating a gambling business is  5 years imprisonment and a fine of $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss for each charge while 30 years imprisonment and a fine of $1 million or twice the gross gain or loss for conspiring to commit bank and wire fraud and 20 years imprisonment and a fine of $500,000 or twice of the amount laundered for money laundering. 

The same charged were also previously brought against payment processors used by the sites that have been shut down.

  

These poker companies are using fraudulent methods to circumvent federal law and trick U.S. banks into processing payments which is in violation of UIGEA.

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said, "As charged, 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. Moreover, as we allege, in their zeal to circumvent the gambling laws, the defendants also engaged in massive money laundering and bank fraud. Foreign firms that choose to operate in the United States are not free to flout the laws they don't like simply because they can't bear to be parted from their profits."

Assistant Director-in-Charge Janice K. Fedarcyk of the FBI said, "These defendants, knowing full well that their business with U.S. customers and U.S. banks was illegal, tried to stack the deck. 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."

Both of these poker companies and defendants are being sought of $3 billion penalties  in civil money-laundering. Defendants Campos and Elie were arrested Friday morning in Utah and Las Vegas, Nevada, respectively, while Franzen is expected to appear in court on April 19, 2011 for his arraignment.

Defendants Scheinberg Bitar, Burtnick, Tate, Tom, Beckley, Rubin and Lang, who are not in the U.S., have not been arrested and remain at large. The U.S. Attorney's Office in Southern District, New York is now working with foreign law enforcement agencies and INTERPOL to arrest the above-mentioned defendants.

At 11:55 a.m. PDT, PokerNews has attempted to contact all three online poker sites but only UB/AP replied to it and has no comment for the moment.

At 12:26 p.m. PDT, PokerStars blocked U.S. players from playing real money games and at 2:00 p.m. PDT, Courier-Mail Newspaper, Australia reported that it is believed that Daniel Tzvetkoff is behind the today's DOJ affront by assisting federal lawyers of Southern District, New York.

Tzvetkoff was arrested last April 16, 2010 in Las Vegas and was charged of the same counts of offenses by allegedly processing $523 million in Internet gambling earnings through his payment processing company, INTABILL.

Tzvetkoff was originally denied bail being a flight risk however, released on bail in August after coordinating with federal authorities and is now living in a secret location of New York City.

The arrests today of the people who allegedly ran payment processors could be a move to let others knowledgeable of the business transactions of these Internet Poker Sites and to cooperate the Federal authorities against these people and the Internet Poker Sites. 

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