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Ten More Sites Seized in New Poker-Related Indictments
- Jessica Welman | May 23, 2011
For those that thought the US crackdown on online poker would end at PokerStars, Full Tilt and the Cereus Poker Network, think again. Breaking news from Maryland indicates that three individuals affiliated with two online gaming companies are being indicted on charges of conducting an illegal gambling business and money laundering.
Monday the Department of Justice issued a statement announcing that Darren Wright and David Parchomchuk of BetEd and Ann Marie Puig of BMX Entertainment are being charged in two separate indictments. As part of the indictments, the Department of Justice seized 11 bank accounts located in Charlotte, North Carolina, Guam, Panama, Malta, Portugal, and the Netherlands as well as ten domain names. The domain names in question include a couple of recognizable sites, most notably DoylesRoom.com. Here is the complete list of domains seized:
Bookmaker.com, 2Betsdi.com, Funtimebingo.com. Goldenarchcasino.com, Truepoker.com, Betmaker.com, Betgrandesports.com, Doylesroom.com, Betehorse.com, and Beted.com.
The US Attorney for the District of Maryland, the IRS, and the Department of Homeland Security were all involved in building the case against online gaming software company ThrillX (DBA BetEd) and online payment processing company BMX Entertainment.
The investigation into the activities of the two companies included a sting operation in which the Department of Homeland Security set up a fake payment processing company called Linwood Payment Solutions. The company processed payments throughout 2009 both to and from the online poker sites. According to the affidavit, Linwood processed over $33 million in payments over the course of more than 300,000 transactions.
“It is illegal for internet gambling enterprises to do business in Maryland, regardless of where the website operator is located,” said U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein. “We cannot allow foreign website operators to flout the law simply because their headquarters are based outside the country.”
Within the sworn affidavit from M. Lisa Ward, Special Agent for the Homeland Security Office, the companies are accused of violating the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), Maryland State law, and federal laws regarding money laundering.
The affidavit also states that Linwood did business with Absolute Poker and UB Poker in addition to the sites named in this indictment. The Linwood company also signed a series of contracts with online gaming sites represented by K23 Financial Services, aka BMX Entertainment. That contract included doing business with True Poker and DoylesRoom as well as seven other sites named in the indictment. The Beted.com contract is separate from Linwood’s business dealings with BMX, which helps explain why it is included in a separate indictment.
Puig is the owner of BMX Entertainment and the only individual named in that indictment. The second indictment naming Wright and Parchomcuk is in relation to alleged illegal operations of Beted.com.
The government is seeking the forfeiture of the bank accounts and domain names named in the indictment. As of press time, all but two of the sites named in the case were not accessible within the United States. DoylesRoom and BetEHorse’s sites were still accessible. Though the site bears his name, Doyle Brunson severed ties with Doyle’s Room earlier this month.
In somewhat related news, the Associated Press reported earlier today that Bradley Franzen, one of the 11 individuals named in the 4/15 indictment against the big three poker sites as well as a number of payment processors, plead guilty to lesser charges in a Manhattan court today in exchange for testimony against some of the other individuals named in the case.
Related posts:
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- Bodog Founder Calvin Ayre Indicted, Domain Name Seized In 2006 Calvin Ayre appeared on the cover of Forbes...
- DOJ Charges Three Major Online Poker Sites with Fraud The U.S. Department of Justice has charged the founders of...
- Australian Government Plans to Ban Popular Poker Sites Censorship in itself is a feared word, as it encroaches...
- The Fight: Bitar, Elie & Kentucky Take Full Tilt-Related Action The Full Tilt news just keeps rolling in. This week,...
“We cannot allow foreign website operators to flout the law simply because their headquarters are based outside the country.”
yeah, but guess what? your protectionist, conservative, ridiculous laws are irrelevant outside your borders… it’s called sovereignty – look it up.
The United States is a joke. Really. People need to stop voting these idiots into office . It’s funny how we are the land of the free , yet the only country that makes poker illegal online. Ffs, even north Koreans can play poker.
Vote out all the idiots from office. Don’t vote for Obama .That will turn the tide really quick. You’ll see how out of no where . This dumb law will change.
It is bullshit that the Justice Department goes after poker and let’s all the shysters in the banking industry off scott free.
The government doing what they do best, getting in people’s way. What pathetic hypocrites… state lotteries and BS and yet they go after a skillful game consenting adults enjoy with their own time and money.
Wow, don’t Homeland Security officials have anything better to do?!? Like fighting terrorism perhaps…
I had no idea that betting on baseball games with an online casino was a threat to national security. Who pays these jokers to waste out tax dollars on this silliness? I fail to see how Obama is the cause, as I think this tends to be a neocon thing. Also, I think the idea is to protect Vegas from competition. I really cannot afford to go to Vegas to bet against the Dodgers, but I guess by not doing that I am now a terrorist. We really need to fire about half the department of homeland security, as they obviously have too much time on their hands.
Come on guys you don’t see what’s really going on here? Politicians are fueled by donations. It seems the casinos in Las Vegas and Atlantic City at first welcomed the online poker sites as they were on of the major contributors to the poker boom. However, things have changed. Las Vegas and Atlantic City’s revenues are dropping as more and more states have opened casinos and less people are taking the vacation trips to LV and AC. So now the next step for the casinos is to create their own internet poker sites but to be successful they had to “eliminate” their competition which they have. Don’t worry there will be Caesar’s Poker and MGM Poker online in less than a year. Trust me!
To the last poster that is why i am leaving this rotten country so i can grind out poker and not have to worry about government, taxes etc etc etc america can kiss my ass!!!!
This is complete utter BS , polititions learned that they didn’t have thier hands in our pockets on these sites now they are gonna shut them all down WTF is going on in this country , are they gonna go after every online american player next for tax evasion I sure hope not , but the way things are heading that way..the American government is nothing but a bunch of evil money hungary crooks…by the way it’s not Obama leading this charge it’s George Bush and him brainless moron army…bunch of douche bags
Obama would rather prosecute poker sites then black panthers who intimidate voters.
@Rivpoker and hyrdr
Obama is all for online poker; the legislation was snuck through by Bush before he left office, get your facts straight
Holder does whatever Obummer tells him to and dont you think anything different.
Holder’s DOJ is doing this for control just like Obama has of your mind.
these people working for the government are really pathetic. poker is a game of skill. when will they understand? Each time something like this happens i hate this country more and more.
This all boils down to rich people continuing to oppress its lesser citizens. Poker was one of the few ways someone could make a lot of money in a short amount of time off of their skill.
This is getting silly online poker needs to be legal
United Staetes “LAND OF THE FREE!!!!”
This is crap. I want to be able to play poker online. The money they are wasting on fighting online poker could be used usefully creating jobs… These government officials are a joke!!
I have a couple of hundred bucks in my account on that site. I suppose in the name of fighting terrorists they will keep it.
My guess is once everything is taken care of i.e. the lawsuits, the payouts, the closure of websites, that within 1 year of that conclusion, poker will be back online in the us. The question is whether they will tinker with the way we have gotten use to playing with multitables, intrastate opponents, and statistical tracking software.
skill? i’m the idiot who pushes set K’s with 2 cards of the same suit on board and the genius flush draw reraises me all in and he hits. yes its gambling. and yes once upon a time this was a free country. and it was that punk bush that hates us for our freedom
Shouldn’t they stick to making Maryland Chicken because something is fowl in the US if a bunch or bureaucrats who no doubt have not had their palms sufficiently greased to meddle in this so called money laundering game! Hmmm just like the IRS or Taxman wants to get his extra pound of flesh. Homeland security should stick to terrorism or are they wanting to create some of their own? Golly gosh the Taliban play poker!!!
I can’t believe all this. I don’t nor haven’t played poker online or even with cards simply because I don’t have the time or $ right now but I’ll sure support everyone’s right to if they want to – sure can’t see how this is a threat to “home land security”!
We haven’t got an administration in D.C. any longer, we’ve got a dictatorship in the making – complete and in your face tyranny, and this is what they’re robbing me out of house and home via taxation for. GAWD!
Oh well i guess it’s time to move on to the next gambling site. There’s still a whole bunch of relilable one’s out there.
United Socialists of America
worst part about this whole thing is that it is relatively easy to go online and find all manner of awful and violent sadistic stuff that is a lot more hurtful to society than gambling. Child pornography, sadism, etc. But noone seems to want to do anything about this issue. Let people play for money online and not pay taxes on it??..suddenly billions of dollars poured into combatting this “problem” seems a rational thing to do. It is a disgrace that we allocate our tax dollars to restricting people`s freedom and turn a blind eye to things that we should be fighting tooth and nail.
to the morons pointing their thick, dumb fingers at Bush – you’re sitting at your computer. you’ve managed to navigate your way to this internet page, so why don’t you *gasp* push yourself to read a bit of news! even a google search will do, it’s kind of scary that people are still so behind and backwards on such relevant issues…. well done morons, I’m sure most of you on here voted for Obama too. GET IT STRAIGHT: republicans are all for online poker, you moronic democrats chase ideals blindly and then wonder why Obama leads a crackdown like this.
I am neither Republican nor Democrat but I will point my slender, smart fingers at REPUBLICANS e.g. Kyl, Goodlatte, et al, those who sponsored and inserted the idiotic UIGEA law into the “Safe Ports” act. You can point your thick, dumb fingers at Bush for presiding over the collapse of our economy and at Obama for enforcing this pos law.
WHY DO ALL THE SPORTSBETTING SITES OPERATE HERE? WHY ARE THEY NOT BEING SHUT DOWN. THEY ALL TAKE CREDIT CARDS, ETC…..
Poker sites are the low-hanging fruit for a lazy DOJ tired of getting shot at by real criminals. Yes … go after the family man playing legal poker in his home online instead of tracking down the meth labs, drug pushers, & violent gang criminals. Poker sites offshore are completely legal.
cam, do a google search on UIGEA. i didn’t play online poker then but i remember who announced that
its easy UIGEA/bush
Fools need to be voted out of office
still waiting for cams reaction on google search on UIGEA/bush. my moronic, thick, fat fingers would enjoy seeing seeing some words eaten
this fuckin country is nothing but a bunch of gangsters running our goverment, its like street drug gangs fightin over turf and not getting a piece of the pie and sticking their grubing fuckin hands in your pockets, maybe the poeple of the usa should do what going on in the middle east and UPRISING
cam, you’re the one who needs to get your facts straight.
The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 was snuck into the Port Security Improvement Act of 2006 at the 11th hour by then-Senate Republican Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee at the behest of social conservatives in Congress and the Bush administration.
The Democrats get their share of the blame for Obama having Holder enforce this insanity.
Neither major political party is blameless in this crazy issue.
It’s sad reading the democrats are at fault/no, it’s the republicans undertone to this discussion. The fact is both parties and both Obama and Bush are equally to blame for what is happening as the US continues its slide into police-state/failed state/socialist/fascist nightmare. What Bush created, Obama continues and expands (wars, patriot act, cracking down on internet poker, expansion of US bureaucracy, etc.) and this is part of the ‘Big Lie’ that has become American politics–Bankers and the Military/Industrial Complex pretty much make the rules these days and the politicians are just a parade of pretty and not so pretty faces. Republocrats. Sad.
hi there im a little late but just back off holls, all the best to yous for 2012
greg f