US DoJ Going After Int'l Banks Now?

[Pinababy69]

The Sunday Times
January 21, 2007


US gaming probe rocks top banks
Jenny Davey

THE US Department of Justice has ordered the world’s biggest investment banks, accountants and law firms to hand over all e-mails, telephone records and papers connected with internet gaming firms as part of an investigation into illegal online gambling in America.

HSBC, Dresdner Kleinwort, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank are known to be among the banks that have been issued with subpoenas — official requests for information — as part of a worldwide hunt to build a case against those who benefited from illegal online gambling.

Britain has been the fundraising centre for many internet gambling companies, with a number of international operators listing their shares in London.

Fortunes were made by the founders of internet gaming stocks, including Party Gaming, 888.com and Betonsports.com, and advisers pocketed huge fees.

The Department of Justice first issued subpoenas in October, only days after George Bush sounded the death knell for America’s $6 billion (£3.2 billion) internet gambling industry by signing legislation banning all related transactions. But until now the investigation has been kept secret.

According to City sources, the subpoenas have continued to arrive over the past few weeks.

It is thought that some investors in online gambling companies, including Party Gaming and 888.com, have also been hit with requests for information.

One source said: “To say the situation is sensitive is the understatement of the decade. The problem is, even if you know you have done nothing wrong, you have no powers of resistance.”

He added: “You can quickly go from being a bystander to a target, so even if you are bomb- proof, you have to assume you are subject to hostility.”

The source went on: “The Department of Justice has taken a shotgun, not a rifle approach in relation to lots of gaming companies and has just asked everyone to hand over all the information they have.”

The request could force banks and other advisers or former advisers to the gambling companies to hand over hundreds of thousands of e-mails and files to American investigators.

Another City source familiar with the circumstances said: “There is no doubt at all that this situation is escalating. This has definitely got legs.”

Another source described it as one of the biggest “fishing expeditions” ever undertaken by the Department of Justice.

Vast riches were made by the founders of internet gambling companies, including Party Gaming and 888.com. Party Gaming floated with a value of £5 billion in the summer of 2005, propelling it straight into the FTSE 100 index ahead of British household names such as British Airways and ICI. Its four founder shareholders — Anurag Dikshit, Vikrant Bhargava, Ruth Parasol and her husband, Russ DeLeon — took out £797m and valued their remaining shares at about £ 3.3 billion. Meanwhile, 888.com, which floated in September 2005 valued at £590m, created another batch of dotcom millionaires, this time among the company’s Israeli founders. Avi and Aharon Shaked received more than £10m from selling a quarter of their 70% stake.

The probe by the Department of Justice will spark outrage in Britain, coming so soon after the extradition of the so-called NatWest Three to America.

“UK plc should be really worried about yet another encroachment of American investigators on to British territory. The City is clearly under threat,” said one British businessman who asked not to be named.

The subpoenas do not reveal whom the Department of Justice is targeting. But some believe the ultimate goal is to find information incriminating the founders of the online gambling firms.

The inquiry vindicates the City professionals who refused to act for internet gambling firms because of the uncertainty about its legality in America. Banks that have been subpoenaed have lined up lawyers to act for them.

None of the banks involved would comment on the subpoenas. The Department of Justice also said that its policy was not to comment about ongoing investigations.

HSBC advised 888.com, one of the most high-profile internet gambling companies, on its flotation. Credit Suisse advised the original shareholders of 888.com on their strategic options before the flotation. Deutsche is co-broker to Party Gaming, while Dresdner advised on its public listing.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/ar...557716,00.html

[Mousey]

I am now terrified of living in this country.

Is no one going to put their foot down and tell the USA to FUCK OFF?!?! Are all these companies and banks and casinos and entire freakin' COUNTRIES simply going to hand over records of entire corporations to the DOJ because some American might have bet on a damn ball game?? Do you folks in the UK really want the DOJ and FBI looking at YOUR transactions, too? It's none of their damned business!!!

I need a valium, and I need it bad. I kid you not. I am aghast, astounded and horrified.

They don't go after drug cartels with such vigor. Are they insane? Do we have another cross dressing paranoic in charge of the DOJ and FBI?

[jerryg]

They don't go after drug cartels with such vigor. Are they insane?

Well said, but then again, there's little chance that a gaming company will shoot at them.

I do not see how this subpoena holds water anywhere outside the US. I also do not see how they can issue one to law firms when any communication with your attorney is privileged information.

[Auditor]

Our government at work.
We as gamblers outnumber any special interest group that opposes gambling.
Please help us fight for your rights.

Join The Association of Players, Casinos, and Webmasters - APCW.org for FREE.
With large numbers behind us we can fight for change, don't sit by while the government takes away your freedoms!

[Addisyn]

Well that sort of does it for me. I will go back to following politics and trying to save what little freedoms we have left.

Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. Benjamin Franklin

[Pinababy69]

I am now terrified of living in this country.

Is no one going to put their foot down and tell the USA to FUCK OFF?!?! Are all these companies and banks and casinos and entire freakin' COUNTRIES simply going to hand over records of entire corporations to the DOJ because some American might have bet on a damn ball game?? Do you folks in the UK really want the DOJ and FBI looking at YOUR transactions, too? It's none of their damned business!!!

I need a valium, and I need it bad. I kid you not. I am aghast, astounded and horrified.

They don't go after drug cartels with such vigor. Are they insane? Do we have another cross dressing paranoic in charge of the DOJ and FBI?

Okay, now I know the Mouse is pissed....she said the "F" word. All kidding aside Mousey, my reaction was identical to yours when I read that article, identical. Someone said to me last night (think it was Winbig), that he'd bet George was turning in his grave, and he didn't mean Bush obviously..he meant Washington. How true.

And I agree, when is someone going to stand up to them and say "enough is enough", and this is bullshit.

I really have to wonder how many of the 300,000,000 (is that right?) people living in your country actually have any clue that this is going on? And that this is what taxpayers dollars are being spent on? Wouldn't and shouldn't they be outraged if they knew? Or as society as a whole become that apathetic that they just don't give a shit? Gambler or not, how can anyone think this is okay?

Sort of a sidenote. Those two Neteller (ex) founders that were arrested, are Canadian citizens. I've been giving some thought to trying to find out how the people in MY country feel about it, and the politicians. Or do we not give a shit either? I'd settle for making people aware of it, I just don't know how.

[winbig]

GW needs to take some lessons from the real GW.

George Washington.

I'm sure Washington and the other founders of the constitution are rolling in their graves right about now.

[Forbin001]

This is an outrage....the DOJ attempting to police the entire world of online gambling. They are out of control.

[vinylweatherman]

Maybe the British electorate will be so enraged that the US has the apparent freedom to look at the information stored in UK banks that they will finally insist that Bush's lapdog Blair rise up and bite his master (assuming Blair stays around long enough - our own police have been arresting top Labour party officials over a corruption allegation, peerages for sale!)
Any other country's government would be told to "F*** Off" by our banks and government, but not the US it seems
A while ago, the FBI ordered South Africa to arrest some old codger minding his own business on holiday. After being held in a South African jail for 6 MONTHS, the FBI said "oops, sorry - wrong guy, you can let him go now". Was he compensated - I doubt it!
While online gaming doesn't impress the UK majority, concern about who is allowed access to personal information is a MASSIVE ISSUE over here, triggered by the proposals for identity cards. If the subpoenas simply tell banks to give "everything" to the DoJ, most Brits will be enraged, whatever the purpose was said to be.

[Scounselor]

The US Federal Government has been taxing me to death for as long as I can remember.

We have no freedoms here in the US anymore.

We have the ILLUSION of freedom only because we beat our own drum constantly and SAY we are free.

If you say it long enough...and loud enough...the public will believe the lie.

After taxes (Federal, State, Local, Medicare, etc.), health insurance premiums, and the "Simple IRA" deductions my employer keeps in his own pocket instead of putting IN my "Simple" IRA account (US Labor Department, where ARE YOU?!), I take home about 50% of my salary.

Then the rest goes to food, (taxed at 8.9%) and the maga deductables on my crappy BC/BS benefits plan.

I have to pay for Auto Insurance or I'll be arrested for driving with it.

I have to buy a State Vehicle Tag once a year, or be arrested for driving without it....

I have to buy a Homeowner's Insurance policy or risk being blown away by the weather, burnt down by fire, burglarized by a Methamphetamine addict, (etc.) and loosing my home and/or belongings.

Of course the Katrina Hurricane victims are still in court trying to collect from our US property insurance companies after THEY made claims....so here in the US just HOPE you never have to make a claim against your property insurance company....

If you make a car or Home Owner's insurance claim your policy jumps so high you can't afford to pay it the next year... OR....you get cancelled.

Insurance is a joke in this country....

FEMA is a joke.

US border security is a joke.

George BUSH is a joke.

What's not a joke is the way George Bush has imposed his will upon the American public.

Now he seems to believe he can impose his will on everything he chooses to impose his will upon... everywhere in The WORLD!

As a US citizen who is supposedly FREE...I am not allowed to spend the meager few bucks I MAY have left in my pocket after all my taxes, and obligations, have been paid....GAMBLING!!

I can gamble if I can travel to Atlantic City or Las Vegas. But I can't gamble on my own PC in my own home!

I'm not FREE to Gamble unless I go to where George Bush WANTS me to gamble!!

The American public sent him a strong message recently that we no longer support his leadership.

But, apparently, I still can't gamble online! That has been proven this week with the shut down of Neteller services to American's followed by all the other deposit sites American's have been using.

And for this tirade to an online post...the FBI will probably show up at my door and drag this middle-aged, impoverished, single Mom away to jail.

So what makes the US Government so different than....other governments and former governments, that have exploited, controlled, and TERRORIZED their own citizens?

Answer: There's NO difference!

I WANT to be FREE to gamble ONLINE if I WANT TO!! So there Mr. George Bush, Jr. I am NOT a TERRORIST!! sz