U.S. Authorities & FBI seize and place arrests on online poker sites including: PokerStars, FullTiltPoker, Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker
Saturday, April 16, 2011 6:12 AM
On Friday, April 15th 2011: U.S. Federal Authorities including the FBI, have seized major online poker sites including PokerStars, FullTiltPoker, Ultimate Bet, UB and Absolute Poker, for charges of fraud, money laundering and major illegal gambling offenses.The "BIG 4" online poker sites including PokerStars.com, FullTiltPoker.com, UltimateBet.com (UB.com) and AbsolutePoker.com face a multitude of criminal charges and punishable offences from 5 years imprisonment to hefty fines up to $3 Billion dollars, for knowingly accepting online gambling funds from U.S. citizens and including other severe charges of money laundering with U.S. Banks and third party money processors and bribery to other financial institutions and third party vendors, to transact funds to and from their offshore poker accounts and U.S. client poker accounts.
Under the federal authority of the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) and by the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, 11 arrests are to be placed in connection to all charges in violation of UIGEA rules (the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act rules) to individuals, employees or owners of the online poker sites including: Isai Scheinberg, Raymond Bitar, Scott Tom, Brent Beckley, Nelson Burtnick, Paul Tate, Ryan Lang, Bradley Franzen, Ira Rubin, Chad Elie and John Campos.
Additionally, federal authorities have seized 75 bank accounts linked to money laundering by the poker site operators in which the online poker companies disguised money they received from U.S. poker players as payments to online merchants selling jewelry, golf balls, etc. ...and that's just the beginning. Sources have also mentioned that U.S.
accounts and all U.S. funds will be placed under investigation and will be frozen until all investigations are finished, thus preventing U.S. poker players from withdrawing and receiving funds from the online poker sites, putting a lot of full time and professional poker players in limbo and out of millions of dollars.
On April 15th, 2011 the debate or headache regarding illegal online gambling concerns for PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, Ultimate Bet, UB and Absolute Poker towards U.S. authority and UIGEA just became a reality. Where or how this will finish ....to be continued.
The only immediate good about all of this, is that Las Vegas and other major poker/gambling destinations as Atlantic City and Los Angeles will surely now get a big welcome in a busy poker room environment with all the overflow of poker players needing to grind it out at the tables to earn a living, which is even greater news for us, as we stake and bankroll poker players for live cash games and live tournaments at the brick and mortar casinos.
...Stay tuned for more, as news develops.