8 Million seized in poker bankroll funds in Washington State

[vinylweatherman]

I was thinking about that too all4greed. LOL Does ewalletxpress think anyone will be running to do business with them after this little game since I don't know what else to call it.

Since I started this thread does that mean I can derail it? Actually you did VWM. I guess we're good then.

You started it

Their "latest update" really STINKS though. This is outright CRIMINAL. They are inviting new customers to sign up and start using them, and this is certainly NOT the "latest update". It SHOULD at least read something like "We are currently unable to accept new customers due to ongoing technical problems".

In NO WAY have they "come clean" with customers as implied previously.

How is THIS seizure playing out, are the operators "coming clean" to individual players who have seen their funds disappear, or are they too claiming "technical issues". Have other seizures such as this prevented NON US customers from using the service. I was certainly NOT affected when Neteller had their US funds seized, and I don't believe the Canadian customers were either, despite the fact that Neteller quickly pulled out of Canada.

It looks more and more like the EWX issue is NOT a straight forward seizure, but they are USING the fact that the DoJ are actively seizing funds as a credible explanation, that currently they have only given out to OPERATORS (and I bet a few operators are not "buying it" either).

[felicie]

You started it

Their "latest update" really STINKS though. This is outright CRIMINAL. They are inviting new customers to sign up and start using them, and this is certainly NOT the "latest update". It SHOULD at least read something like "We are currently unable to accept new customers due to ongoing technical problems".

In NO WAY have they "come clean" with customers as implied previously.

How is THIS seizure playing out, are the operators "coming clean" to individual players who have seen their funds disappear, or are they too claiming "technical issues". Have other seizures such as this prevented NON US customers from using the service. I was certainly NOT affected when Neteller had their US funds seized, and I don't believe the Canadian customers were either, despite the fact that Neteller quickly pulled out of Canada.

It looks more and more like the EWX issue is NOT a straight forward seizure, but they are USING the fact that the DoJ are actively seizing funds as a credible explanation, that currently they have only given out to OPERATORS (and I bet a few operators are not "buying it" either).

Where did you find the update? New customers? all4greed's the one that's going to have a 'seizure'.

[felicie]

Another one from my search bar.

WA State Poker Players lose $8 Million
Jan 6, 2011 5:35 pm Report Abuse

from
http://www.casinoscamreport.com/2011...ose-8-million/

Online Poker Players in Washington State lose $8 Million
January 5, 2011 · Filed Under Online Gambling News, Online Poker News

Online Poker players in the State of Washington have taken a huge “bad beat” from the Federal Government with over $8 million of their money being seized. Payment processors that were in the middle of transacting their winning payments or deposits at numerous poker sites have been seized one at a time and all monies frozen with not much hope of the players having their money returned. The Poker rooms are not losing the money, it’s the players that are losing because these processors that are being seized perform transactions for players when they win, which means the money is theirs or when they deposit, which means the money was theirs to play with at the poker rooms and none of the confiscated money comes out of the poker rooms pockets. Only the processors themselves get hit by these seizures with hefty fines and or jail time if found guilty of illegal transactions.

Some of the processors that have been targeted and seized in Washington State include, Arrow Checks, Etegrity Processing, Anaya Trading Solutions, Secure Money, Logistics and Blue Lake Capital Management. All this money confiscation began in 2009 and is a result of a task force investigation that worked with the Washington State Gambling Commission. Many of the seized and frozen cash sits in high profile banks accounts at Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase & Co., Wells Fargo and more. Some of the poker rooms that were included in this investigation included Poker Stars, Full Tilt Poker, Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker four of the biggest poker rooms online.

Some of the Federal investigators have actually contacted the “players” who have received checks from some of the above payment processors and they admitted that these checks were from online poker rooms. Now just imagine being an online poker player in your own home and you get a knock on your door to find some Feds standing there wanting to know about your online poker play! These people must have been frightened and intimidated into thinking they were going to be arrested or something and had to sit there and recall there poker play and winnings. So much money and effort on such a trivial issue as online poker being played by upstanding citizens in there own homes; it’s just a sad, sad day when poker players are harassed like they are criminals. In addition, where is all this money going? Why are the Feds not returning it to the players, or at least showing them were the money is going so that all speculation of government corruption and lining ones pockets with this money is not taking place. Wouldn’t it be a good idea to investigate the Feds and see where all this money is going and how it is being used?

By Patricia C. Senior Editor CasinoScamReport.com

[vinylweatherman]

Another one from my search bar.

WA State Poker Players lose $8 Million
Jan 6, 2011 5:35 pm Report Abuse

from
http://www.casinoscamreport.com/2011...ose-8-million/

Online Poker Players in Washington State lose $8 Million
January 5, 2011 · Filed Under Online Gambling News, Online Poker News

Online Poker players in the State of Washington have taken a huge “bad beat” from the Federal Government with over $8 million of their money being seized. Payment processors that were in the middle of transacting their winning payments or deposits at numerous poker sites have been seized one at a time and all monies frozen with not much hope of the players having their money returned. The Poker rooms are not losing the money, it’s the players that are losing because these processors that are being seized perform transactions for players when they win, which means the money is theirs or when they deposit, which means the money was theirs to play with at the poker rooms and none of the confiscated money comes out of the poker rooms pockets. Only the processors themselves get hit by these seizures with hefty fines and or jail time if found guilty of illegal transactions.

Some of the processors that have been targeted and seized in Washington State include, Arrow Checks, Etegrity Processing, Anaya Trading Solutions, Secure Money, Logistics and Blue Lake Capital Management. All this money confiscation began in 2009 and is a result of a task force investigation that worked with the Washington State Gambling Commission. Many of the seized and frozen cash sits in high profile banks accounts at Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase & Co., Wells Fargo and more. Some of the poker rooms that were included in this investigation included Poker Stars, Full Tilt Poker, Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker four of the biggest poker rooms online.

Some of the Federal investigators have actually contacted the “players” who have received checks from some of the above payment processors and they admitted that these checks were from online poker rooms. Now just imagine being an online poker player in your own home and you get a knock on your door to find some Feds standing there wanting to know about your online poker play! These people must have been frightened and intimidated into thinking they were going to be arrested or something and had to sit there and recall there poker play and winnings. So much money and effort on such a trivial issue as online poker being played by upstanding citizens in there own homes; it’s just a sad, sad day when poker players are harassed like they are criminals. In addition, where is all this money going? Why are the Feds not returning it to the players, or at least showing them were the money is going so that all speculation of government corruption and lining ones pockets with this money is not taking place. Wouldn’t it be a good idea to investigate the Feds and see where all this money is going and how it is being used?

By Patricia C. Senior Editor CasinoScamReport.com

I am sure that in another case, those who owned the money were asked to claim it in person at some kind of hearing. Naturally, this meant entering the US, and offshore casinos and processors did not submit claims, as they expected that they would be arrested as soon as they entered the country. The DoJ then kept the unclaimed monies.

With players residing in the US, they WOULD be able to submit a claim, but would probably have to strike a deal with the Federal agents, perhaps further information in exchange for the return of their monies. They may also have to sign an undertaking not to participate in online play again.

[felicie]

Feds Quietly Freeze Online Poker Cash in Washington
Jan. 5 2011 - 8:43 am | 11,220 views | 0 recommendations | 25 comments
By NATHAN VARDI
Screenshot of the Pokerstars GUI at a real-mon...

Image via Wikipedia

Federal prosecutors in the state of Washington have in recent months quietly moved to seize nearly $8 million from financial outfits that were processing transactions for big online poker companies like PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker.

According to four civil forfeiture complaints filed in federal court in Seattle since October, federal prosecutors have moved against cash sitting in accounts at Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Wells Fargo & Co. and SunTrust Banks, belonging to payment processor firms like Arrow Checks, Secure Money, Etegrity Processing, Anaya Trading Solutions and Blue Lake Capital Management and Logistics.

The cash grab is the latest move in the Justice Department’s battle against online poker and comes after Washington’s State Supreme Court in September upheld a 2006 state law that made it a felony to play online poker for money in the state of Washington.

The government’s cash grab is the result of a task force investigation that included the Washington State Gambling Commission and began in January 2009, the court filings show. The largest of these forfeiture cases, filed in December and involving $5.1 million, began in June after task force officer William Marik was notified by a witness that he had received a payout check of online poker winnings from Arrow Checks. The government investigation tracked more than $20 million of wire transfers from Canada and Texas to Arrow Checks accounts at Bank of America controlled by Scott Seguin and Justin Sather, court documents say.

The investigating agents contacted Washington state online poker players in July who received checks from Arrow Checks and said the money represented proceeds from online poker playing at PokerStars, court documents say. Federal prosecutors claim Seguin and Sather were operating an unlicensed money transmitting business and violated the federal wire act “because online gambling is illegal in Washington state.”

Other payment processors targeted by the feds had six bank accounts at SunTrust and Wells Fargo controlled by Sanjay Panya. Those bank accounts were used to issue checks that represented proceeds from online poker play at Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker, according to online poker players in the state of Washington who received them and spoke to government investigators, the court documents say. The feds moved to seize $1.3 million in the accounts connected to Panya in November, claiming he was operating an unlicensed money transmitting business and violating the wire act.

The other payment processor companies involved in the civil forfeiture actions were run by Brian Kenny and Javier Carillo, both of whom court documents say facilitated payments to Washington state residents derived from online poker play at UltimateBet.

Federal prosecutorial efforts against online poker have in recent years focused on the role of payment processors, making it seem to some that the government does not have a high degree of confidence in its position that facilitating for-money online poker violates U.S. law, specifically the wire act. PokerStars, based in the Isle of Man, has long maintained that it offers for-money online poker play to U.S. players in accordance with legal opinions from several U.S. law firms that state it is not violating U.S. law.

In August, federal prosecutors in Manhattan reached a civil settlement with Ahmad Khawaja and his two payment processing firms, which agreed to forfeit $13.3 million that the government claimed constituted proceeds of illegal gambling.

A few months earlier, in May, Douglas Rennick, a Canadian payment processor, pleaded guilty to violating the wire act by processing more than $350 million in the U.S. for Internet poker companies, forfeiting money that belonged to players of PokerStars and Full Tilt. Both companies reimbursed players for funds lost in the Rennick seizures.

The role of states and state law in the online poker landscape will likely play an important role in 2011, especially since Senator Harry Reid was unable to push through legislation late in 2010 that would have federally regulated online poker. Both PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker stopped servicing the Washington state market last year.

[felicie]

This is players having to make a deal or were undercover to begin with. Why else would a 'poker player' inform the feds that he'd just received a check for poker wins from any company.
On the other hand if my state had a law making it a felony to play online, I'm afraid I'd have to abide by it. I sure as hell wont go to prison for playing cards. Smoking a cigarette maybe someday but not playing cards.

[vinylweatherman]

When the seizures were actually made, they seem to have been "in the public domain", even though the pre-seizure investigation was not. With EWX, the seisure has now taken place, so why is there STILL no official word on this?

I am sure I have read that Washington has used undercover players to trace the payment routes from sports betting in the past, so this is likely to have begun with undercover players, moving on to genuine players after the first seizures took place. From July onwards, players were contacted by the feds and asked about the payments, so at this point the news was out. Maybe these few players were not believed at the time, or didn't think they would be, so quietly pulled out of online poker, and didn't end up getting burned when the big seizures took place.

The details also show close cooperation with the Canadian authorities, but it was ONLY US money that was seized, yet money from CANADIAN customers has supposedly ended up getting seized with EWX.

[felicie]

Were we aware that not only is there the DOJ but also the OTJ which stands for Office of Tribal Justice as of 2010 when it came into being as a separate entity within the DOJ. still searching. feel like I'm playing the 'hot&cold' game. LOL

[all4greed]

Felicie - good info. Doesn't look too hopeful for players. I could see them perhaps legally confiscating winnings, deposits should be exempt and returned at a minimum. But good luck on working all that out.

What a mess.

[all4greed]

Thinking about this further, my state banned OLG years ago but I've heard radio interviews with people that have won serious money (6 figures +) at poker and the issues of legality never came up. Also, there were tv ads awhile back advertising for some poker site(s).

I haven't read word for word the gambling laws here, but I can't believe that online poker would be exempt.