Le FBI vient de faire saisir 30.000.000 $ sur 27.000 comptes bancaires de la Citibank, Goldwater Bank et Alliance Bank of Arizona. Il a été prouvé que ces comptes ont reçu des virements provenant de jeux de poker... donc illico frozen et bloqués par le gouvernement fédéral.
Une affaire à suivre donc car c'est une première...
Fulltilt et Pokerstars ont immédiatement réagi et remboursent leurs clients victimes de cette saise... Une estimation a été faite: plus de 10 millions d'américains jouent au poker investissant 6 milliards chaque année sur les différentes rooms de poker.
FEDS FREEZE $30M IN ONLINE POKER STASHES By KATE SHEEHY with BRUCE GOLDING, AP
Posted: 2:14 am June 10, 2009
The feds just played a big trump card in their war against online gambling -- freezing more than $30 million in poker players' kitties. John Pappas, executive director of the Poker Players Alliance, called the move involving 20,000 players' accounts "unprecedented.The PPA will pursue every legal course available to ensure that poker players' funds are not seized and their right to play poker online is protected," Pappas wrote in a scathing response to Arlo Devlin-Brown, the assistant US attorney for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan.
The Justice Department's stunning tactic is the latest in its ongoing battle against Internet gambling, which was banned in the United States in 2006. Federal officials refused to confirm even whether they played the ace up their sleeve, but the PPA went public with documents showing that the government last week ordered several banks to put a freeze on the accounts of payment processors who handle poker players' pots. The banks where accounts appear to have been frozen were Citibank, Goldwater and Alliance banks in Arizona, and a Wells Fargo bank in San Francisco.
In letters to Alliance, the feds targeted accounts held by payment processor Allied Systems Inc. The government said the accounts are legally subject to seizure and forfeiture "because they constitute property involved in money-laundering transactions and illegal gambling offenses," according to one letter.
The bank must treat the money "as legally seized" because of evidence payments were being funneled into illicit, offshore, gambling businesses, another letter said. The government action comes six months after the co-founder of a major Internet gambling company agreed to forfeit $300 million of his gains and cooperate in the Justice Department's probe.
Anurag Dikshit, a 37-year-old billionaire computer whiz, pleaded guilty as part of a deal involving his company, PartyGaming, which takes bets on everything from poker and blackjack to "virtual dog racing."
Dikshit, of India, told a Manhattan federal judge in December that 85 percent of his business is US-based. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) introduced legislation in April to make Internet gambling legal. His bill would establish the Internet Gambling Regulation Consumer Protection and Enforcement Act, creating a regulatory structure to oversee the betting.
"The government should not interfere with people's liberties," Frank has said. Supporters argue that by illegalizing 'Net bets, the feds let the US economy lose billions of dollars and promote money-laundering as gamblers try to hide their winnings. The PPA, which says it has more than 1 million members, supports Frank's legislation. Internet gambling was made illegal under the Bush administration.
http://www.nypost.com/seven/06102009/news/nationalnews/feds_freeze_30m_in_online_poker_stashes_173466.htm
http://cbs3.com/business/online.poker.freeze.2.1041183.html
Full Tilt Poker Begins Reimbursing Poker Players
In a statement provided to ABC News, Full Tilt Poker announced that anyone affected by the recent seizure of player funds via its Instant eCheck platform have had this money reimbursed to their accounts. "In light of recent events involving the freezing of certain accounts, Full Tilt Poker would like to assure all players that their funds remain safe and secure," spokeswoman Michele Clayborn said in the statement. "All players who were affected by the current situation have had their funds returned to their accounts," the statement said. David, the World Series hopeful, said he had been reimbursed by PokerStars and given an additional 10 percent credit. He used his own savings to buy into the World Series and will use the winnings from his championship game online to pay himself back as soon as he gets them, he said.
The federal government had frozen more than $30 million in the accounts of payment processors that handle the winnings of thousands of online poker players, including Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars. Documents obtained by the AP show that a magistrate judge in the district issued a seizure warrant last week for an account at a Wells Fargo bank in San Francisco, and that a federal prosecutor told Alliance Bank to freeze accounts. Warning letters were also sent to other banking institutions via a federal prosecutor implying the funds were being used for "money laundering transactions".
While Full Tilt Poker claims that monies were reimbursed to players accounts, there was no immediate confirmation by players that this is the case. PokerStars customers are reporting they have not yet been reimbursed.
Christopher Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher
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