The founders of the three biggest online poker companies operating in the United States were indicted yesterday on federal charges of bank fraud, money laundering and illegal gambling.
And a civil suit is seeking at least $3 billion from PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker -- whose owners stand accused of tricking US banks and "effectively bribing others" to process their illegal profits.
The alleged scam included disguising bets and the house "rake" as payments to purported online businesses for the purchase of jewelry, golf balls and other items.
Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara noted that while a 2006 law made Internet gambling illegal, the offshore firms never did fold -- with Absolute Poker even issuing a press release declaring that "the US Congress has no control over" its business.
"These defendants, knowing full well that their business with US customers and US banks was illegal, tried to stack the deck," said Manhattan FBI chief Janice Fedarcyk. "The defendants bet the house that they could continue their scheme -- and they lost."
Prosecutors obtained restraining orders against more than 75 bank accounts in 14 countries and seized five Internet domain names.
By late afternoon, absolutepoker.com had been replaced with a Web page bearing full-color logos of the FBI and the Department of Justice -- and warning: "Conducting, financing, managing, supervising, directing or owning all or part of an illegal gambling business is a federal crime."
But PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker apparently remained active -- with their Web sites respectively boasting more than 217,000 and 100,000 online players.
Neither PokerStars owners Isai Scheinberg and Paul Tate, Full Tilt Poker's Raymond Bitar and Nelson Burtnick nor Absolute Poker's Scott Tom and Brent Beckley are currently in the United States.
All remain at large, some purportedly in Costa Rica, others in Ireland and the Isle of Man. US authorities said they were working with Interpol and foreign law-enforcement agencies to track them down.
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