Founders of top poker Web sites indicted

Originally posted by tooo many pills

tricked banks into processing billions of dollars

Pretty sure they didn't need to trick the banks into accepting billions of dollars into their accounts and onto their books. How about going after the banks as well as they made the money laundering and gambling websites possible? Or would that hurt the economy too much? Too big to fail, and we are all too small to stand up.

A 2006 law made it a federal crime to “knowingly accept” most forms of payment from illegal Internet gambling.

I guess the banks just played stupid for cash then?
Just like Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds... "Durr, I didn't know what was in dem 24oz syringes. How was I suppose-ta know them needles had steroids in them? I'm a baseball player, not a scientist with a doctorates damnit!"

edit on 15-4-2011 by tooo many pills because: (no reason given)

Oh they went after the banks for laundering drug money. Wachovia to be exact. What happened to em? Hundred million dollar fine. After all it was probably their own CIA money the bank was laundering.

Link to story

This is very interesting indeed. I guess the mobsters in Washington have decided they were the only ones who were allowed to rack money from gamblers.
This will end up with legalization of internet gambling all across the US...
Only the payment processors based in the US will be accountable for breaking the law, because the off-shore companies that run the websites are not responsible for players breaking local gambling laws. When you sign up for a site you have to accept a disclaimer that states that you should be aware of local laws before gambling real money.

I would say it will come down to where the banks offices are... if they have any on the reservations ... well the feds case is screwed....

reply to post by townio


I think this all started a few years ago when a lady in Cali sued her bank cardholder because she lost like 100K online gambling and sued the bank saying they illegally transferred the money and she won. Thats why funding via credit card was shut down. They won't go after the banks hell the banks own the treasury. Just legalize it and tax it like you say. Will take years though. Meanwhile folks will have to go to casino's to play where they're already taxed. Or next the government will start kicking in doors if they hear about an illegal basement texas hold em game going on at somebody's house.

It seems that at first they did "trick" the banks, by using hundreds of fake businesses for accounts, but then the banks caught on so they switched it up a bit.

Disclaimer; THIS IS ALL ALLEGED.

According to the indictment, the payment processors originally lied to the banks about the nature of the financial transactions. Soon enough, however, the companies moved on.

Instead, law enforcement agencies believe, the payment processors and poker companies swapped processing payments for investments in the banks themselves.

"For example, in September 2009, Elie and others approached defendant John Campos, the vice chairman of the board and part-owner of SunFirst Bank, a small, private bank based in Saint George, Utah, about processing Internet poker transactions," the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's Office said in a statement. "While expressing 'trepidations,' Campos allegedly agreed to process gambling transactions in return for a $10 million investment in SunFirst by ELIE and an associate, which would give them a more than 30 percent ownership stake in the bank. Campos also requested and received a $20,000 'bonus' for his assistance. In an e-mail, one of Elie's associates boasted that they had 'purchased' SunFirst and that they 'were looking to purchase' 'a grand total of 3 or 4 banks' to process payments."

www.pcmag.com...

One bank targeted in September 2009 was SunFirst Bank, a small, private lender based in Saint George, Utah. John Campos, vice chairman of the board and part-owner of SunFirst, allegedly agreed to process transactions in return for a $10 million investment in the bank by Elie and an associate, the government claimed. Campos and Elie were arrested Friday in Saint George and Las Vegas respectively, the government said.

www.marketwatch.com...

reply to post by HoldTheBeans


Yeah, I remember that. Funny how all the bad and guilty people just disappear when the bigger bank, Wells Fargo, completes a corporate coup of the smaller bank Wachovia. Nobody was charged?

You'd think it would be rather easy to locate the drug dealers at the top of the pyramid through their banks. They're bringing in tens to hundreds of billions of dollars in cold hard cash to the banks, the U.S. Gov. could just get in touch with the banks, which would then ask the drug kingpins to come in and sign a few documents so their money can be laundered to Swiss bank accounts. Then bam! We handcuff and shackle them off to Guantanamo. That is if ever we wanted to get rid of the major players in the War on Drugs.

I live 10 mins from an indian casino thats always packed. I personally would rather gamble there for the free booze than play online. But if thats what people like then hay go for it.

I know it doesn't seem like the typical ATS story but it has all the common ingredients of a big story you'll recognize (minus elenin). First you have a massive government infringement on international poker players in what is a money grab. Plus you have a little bit of crookedness in the details too. Like SunTrust bank taking bribes from poker sites. The other article I posted earlier about Daniel Tzvetkoff is really interesting as well, he allegedly fleeced over $100m from FTP. The reason he is working with the USG now is because the poker sites informed the FBI where he was in Vegas.

lets be honest. if the fed could tax it, nothing would be shut down.

What about the American poker players and sponsers? Raynor, Moneymaker, Duke?

Will they be arrested? Hard time? 25 cents an hour for forced labor?

Watch out for the showers.

4/15/2011- The day the US government killed online poker.

I figured it was only a matter of time until they did this. A few months ago all WA state players were blocked from the major sites.

The PPA has been lobbying for years now to get a Bill passed to legalize online poker. Most Pro players along with major casinos backed Harry Reid in the last election, he promised to get the Bill passed.

The current Bill still in the works would allow the US government to regulate and tax online poker, they will also issue online gaming licenses first to US casinos and Reservations to operate online cardrooms.

To me this looks like the US government is stepping in and cutting out all offshore online cardrooms so they can set up shop and take a cut of the action.

Originally posted by intrepid
Somewhat on topic but did you know that ATS has more traffic than Pokerstars according to Quantcast? Thanks to the great contribution of our members.

Considering there's not much of interest on the Pokerstars website, it makes perfect sense that ATS has more traffic. Is Quantcast taking into account the actual poker room (downloaded software where you access the tables)? There's usually around 100 thousand people playing there every day.

What could possibly have possessed you to post that? What a weird comment. Feels like it came out of nowhere.

Kinda like those super Christians who always find a way to get Jesus into a conversation.

You are no longer allowed to play real money on poker stars... Ive been slowly turning my 10$ on each FT and PS into some real money... and of course as I start playing more, im not allowed too on poker stars...

Im playing 2 tables on full tilt, and mentioning it at the table, but havent had any replies back about it...

This is gonna mean alot more angry ppl in the US... people who werent necessarily awake or observant of the current issues the US is facing, will now get angry for other reasons, but still ultimately directed at the mis-placed power that we are witnessing of TPTB

reply to post by morder1


Don't log off FTP, you will still be able to play for real money as long as you stay logged in.

Lol, I still wont be able to cash it out...

I was following a poker player forum and ppl arent able to withdraw from poker stars...

I guess only americans can see the FBI seizure notice on pokerstars.com and fulltiltpoker.com cause I tried talking about it at the table, and some canadian guy called me a liar and threatened to report me... lol... and I replied back, yeah I guess the truth is reportable these days...

I just tried to withdrawl my money from full tilt and cannot do it.

I have a very large amount I have built up over the last few years that is close to 25 grand. I worked very hard building it up from my one and only deposit of 100 dollars. Now when I try and withdrawl it says it cannot process my request at this time.

I was waiting to hit 30 grand, withdrawl and use it as a down payment on a nice house. Now I fear it is gone forever, but I'm not going to give up trying to get it. Tomorrow I am going to contact an attorney and see what my options are for recovering my substantial winnings.

this is terrible news...just when i think i cannot hate the government any more than i possibly do, they go and do this...fascism sucks...i was just about to withdraw a few hundo from FTP, but now should i even try or should i wait for this to all blow over? has anybody tried withdrawing since hearing about this stuff? i count on ftp as a source of income but should i even be wasting my time playing right now?...a week ago after losing with AA to KK for the tenth time in a row, i emailed ftp and accused them of being crooked and rigging their games, and i told them i hoped every last one of them got indicted; so be careful what you wish for, i guess...

reply to post by Becoming


Ouch! Yeah I never left more than 3 grand in there... I got lucky back 5 yrs ago or so when they cracked down on partypoker and NETeller etc... I heard it might have been coming from a forum, and withdrew all my money... but not as much as that. wow im sorry to hear about that. I hope you do get it back asap

reply to post by morder1


Thanks, what sucks is that I never play tournaments as the luck factor is way to high. I started on the 1 and 2 tables and gradually worked my way up to the 100 and 200 tables.

My best day I won 3 grand and my worse I lost 4 grand. I went through to many up and downs to simply say "oh well, I'm only really losing 100 dollars of my own money". I will not walk away empty handed from this without giving one hell of a fight.