Feds seize $24
million tied to online gambling website Bodog
After months of quite time in the online gambling
industry, the Feds are back in full force, seizing $24 million
from bank accounts tied to gambling website
Bodog. As reported by Forbes,
court filings in Maryland say that in January and February a
total of $14.2 million was seized from accounts in the name of
JBL Services and Transaction Solutions at Wachovia, Regions
Bank, Bank of America and Sun Trust Bank. In July, filings say,
another $9.9 million was found in eight accounts at Nevada State
Bank, a unit of Zion Bancorporation (nasdaq: ZION - news -
people ), in the name of Zaftig Instantly Processed Payments,
doing business as ZipPayments.com. The companies are described
as helping to facilitate parts of the Bodog operation.
The court papers detail an elaborate
international structure put together to allow Bodog to collect
money and write checks to winning gamblers in the U.S. One
affidavit by Randall S. Carrow, a special agent with the U.S.
Internal Revenue Service's Criminal Investigation Division, said
that $248 million involving entities linked to Bodog was
processed through Wachovia Bank, from which $11 million of the
$24 million was seized.
In a statement to Forbes, Wachovia said
the bank cooperated with law enforcement, doesn't knowingly
allow Internet gaming operations to open accounts, and the funds
ending up at the bank were in accounts of a third-party credit
card servicer. The statement also hinted that various accounts
might have been kept open at the request of investigators to aid
their efforts.
According to Carrow's detailed sworn
statements, the IRS's Criminal Investigation Division started
looking at Bodog in 2003 and opened a formal probe in 2006. The
extensive sleuthing has involved close examination of public and
bank records, the enlisting of unnamed cooperating witnesses and
informants, and undercover efforts to make bets on football and
collect winnings. A break in the inquiry came in May, one of
Carrow's affidavits says, when an undercover operative for
"another state's gambling commission" received a check that
didn't bounce from an account at Nevada State Bank, which is
headquartered in Las Vegas. That led to the $9.9 million seizure
this month. The bank had no immediate comment.
Carrow's affidavits were filed in
connection with the U.S.'s successful efforts to get a federal
judge to authorize the seizures. But to keep the money
permanently, federal prosecutors must file a civil lawsuit and
allow a challenge by anyone with a claimed interest. No one
fought the $14.2 million seizure, and it was ordered forfeited
to the feds. The lawsuit over the $9.9 million--its official
name is United States of America v. $9,869,283.05--was just
filed. Read more at
Forbes.
Published on
07/31/2008
Related News:
E-mail:
news@ogpaper.com