Terremoto no mundo do poker: o take da Reuters sobre o "crackdown"

11 charged in US crackdown on online poker

By Chris Lefkow (AFP) – 3 hours ago

WASHINGTON — Eleven people have been charged with bank fraud, money laundering, illegal gambling and other offenses in a crackdown on the three largest online poker companies operating in the United States.

The founders of the companies -- PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker -- were among those charged in the indictment unsealed on Friday by the US attorney for the southern district of New York.

In addition to the charges, restraining orders were issued against 76 bank accounts in 14 countries used by the poker firms and their payment processors.

Five Internet domain names used by the companies to host their games were also seized by the authorities, who filed a complaint seeking $3 billion in money laundering penalties and forfeiture from the poker companies.

"These defendants, knowing full well that their business with US customers and US banks was illegal, tried to stack the deck," FBI assistant director Janice Fedarcyk said in a statement.

"They lied to banks about the true nature of their business," Fedarcyk said. "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," she said.

While Internet gambling has been illegal in the United States since 2006, online poker remains a multi-billion industry with companies using a variety of ways to flout the law, including locating their operations offshore.

According to the indictment, the companies arranged for money received from US gamblers to be disguised as payments to non-existent websites purporting to sell merchandise such as jewelry and golf balls.

The indictment said the poker companies tricked US banks into processing billions of dollars but some banks were conspirators in the scheme to bypass US laws that make it illegal to handle gambling proceeds.

Among those arrested was John Campos, the part owner of SunFirst Bank, a small private bank in Saint George, Utah, who agreed to process online poker transactions.

Three of the 11 charged are under arrest in the United States but eight of them are abroad and US authorities are seeking the assistance of Interpol and foreign law enforcement to apprehend them.

Three of the defendants are Canadians. One of them, Isai Scheinberg, 64, the founder of PokerStars, has dual Israeli-Canadian citizenship and lives in the Isle of Man.

All of the others are US citizens. Most of them live outside the United States -- in the Isle of Man, Ireland and Costa Rica.

If convicted, the defendants can face up to five years in prison for illegal Internet gambling, 20 years for money laundering and 30 years for bank and wire fraud.

US law prohibits US financial institutions from knowingly accepting payments for online gambling made through credit cards, electronic funds transfers, and checks.

The US ban on Internet gambling has been challenged as an unfair trade restriction at the World Trade Organization.

Pelas 23h20 de Portugal, e apesar das dificuldades denunciadas em várias partes do mundo em aceder à Pokerstars e à Full Tilt, o Pokerscout atribui a estas salas a presença online de 201.237 e 96.019 jogadores. O abalo sísmico, para já, está a ser suportado. Veremos o que acontecerá nos próximos dias.