DOJ indicts founders of top US online poker sites

[TrailerParkBoys]

DOJ indicts founders of top US online poker sites - MarketWatch


SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Federal authorities unsealed an indictment Friday against the founders of the three largest internet poker companies operating in the U.S. The indictment charges eleven defendants, including the founders of PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and Absolute Poker, with bank fraud, money laundering, and illegal gambling offenses, according to Federal authorities in New York. Restraining orders were issued against more than 75 bank accounts used by the poker companies and their payment processors, while five Internet domain names used by the companies to host poker games were seized, federal authorities added in a statement.

[TrailerParkBoys]

please delete one of the threads, my bad. Thanks.

[NightCap424]

Founders Of World’s Biggest Online Poker Companies Indicted - Nathan Vardi - The Jungle - Forbes

crazy....

[NightCap424]

Hmmmmm, the pros that are represented by these sites have to be thinking.....wtf

[iggs111]

I knew this was coming....Full Tilt had to know this was coming...****ing Feds were knocking on people's doors that played on there just to talk to them...So glad I don't play poker anymore

[TrailerParkBoys]

[iggs111]

Wowwwwww

[TrailerParkBoys]

http://www.businessinsider.com/boy-g...scandal-2011-4


The internet is still coming to grips with the huge online gambling bust that just took down the U.S.'s three biggest online poker sites.

But Australia's Courier-Mail already has the scoop on the one man who may have single-handedly built the online industry ... then handed it to the U.S. government on a platter.

According to this story, Daniel Tzvetkoff was a young Australian entrepreneur who set up the payment processing schemes used by the biggest poker sites to handle their (mostly illegal) transactions.

He made Full Tilt Poker and Poker Stars millions of dollars — and making as much $150,000 a day for himself — but then got even more greedy and started taking them for himself. They sued him, demanding more than $100 million of their own money back.

Then last April, Tzvetkoff was arrested in Las Vegas and charged with the same crimes those sites founders were charged with today: money laundering, bank fraud, wire fraud. As an Australian citizen with a lot of wealth, he was considered a flight risk and denied bail.

Then after a "secret" meeting with prosecutors, he was suddenly out on bail. And now, his former colleagues are the ones facing serious jail time.

Daniel Tzvetkoff knows the operations of these poker site inside and out. He's the one man positioned to give these companies to the U.S. Attorneys on a silver platter. And it looks like that's exactly what he did, cooperating with the authorities to avoid his own lengthy jail sentence.

All the major gambling prosecutions in the U.S., since Tzvetkoff's arrest have been run out of the office of Arlo Devlin-Brown, the Manhattan Asst. U.S. Attorney, who is Tzvetkoff's "handler."

According to a source, "He knows how to reverse-engineer transactions to determine its original source," making him very valuable to investigators.

And the biggest irony of all? It's been rumored that the only reason the FBI got their hands on him is because Full Tilt or Poker Stars (the companies he used to work for and stole from) tipped off the FBI that he was going to be traveling to the United States

They ratted him out ... and he turned the tables. No honor among thieves.

And as the Courier Mail put it, if this were still the old days, he'd buried in the Las Vegas desert right now.

[Boulder257]

Where is everyone going to play now that these are shut down?!?!?!?!

[iggs111]

Originally Posted by Boulder257

Where is everyone going to play now that these are shut down?!?!?!?!

House games, casinos, social clubs.....

[Boulder257]

That sucks....I was in the middle of a game when they shut it down. Tried to register for another and it said I couldn't.

[HAMILROCK]

what happens to everyone's money in their accounts? is that seized?

[stan_the_bear]

Anyone try to get their money out yet? Is it a panic? I've got small potatoes in my account, but still hate to lose it.

[Boulder257]

I tried to do a withdrawal and it gave me the standard 48 hour rule.
Seriously, where is everyone playing now that these three are closed? I had an entire night on Poker planned?!?!?!?

[TrailerParkBoys]

They seized bank accounts so I'd say good luck. Hope you get your $$ but.....