Online gambling payment processors are proving to be profitable targets for Law Enforcements agencies in the US. On Thursday, US Attorney Bill Nettles announced that his office in conjunction with the US Secret Service and Greenville County Sheriff’s Office seized over $2m from companies processing payments related to online gambling.
The bases for the seizures according to the US Attorney were bank fraud, money laundering and violation of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA). “Money laundering facilitates a broad range of serious underlying criminal offenses and ultimately threatens the integrity of the financial system,” Nettles added.
Prime Investment, LTD and Trading 24/7 LTD were the targets of the investigation that revealed more than $40m in online poker proceeds were transferred into to the US between Oct. 2010 and Feb. 2011 from these two companies.
For their participation in the investigation, the Greenville County Sheriff’s Office received a check for more than $700k as a part of federal equitable sharing program that allows the proceeds from federal forfeitures to be shared with local law enforcement agencies.
The success of the investigation was due in part to the cooperation of players in South Carolina that worked with the Greenville County Sheriff’s Office. According to Nettles, the players divulged the names of the processors sending them online poker proceeds and the time frames in which they expected their payments to be processed.
Nettles also stated that the investigation has not resulted in the arrest of any players. Instead, the offshore business that by laundering money posed a threat to the security of our financial system were the ones committing the key offenses. However, future actions against players would not be ruled out and authorities indicated the investigation is still ongoing.
