NETELLER CHIEF TELLS YOUTUBE USERS "WE'RE SORRY"

3 August 2007

US players get frozen funds and an apology - at last

The Isle of Man based e-wallet Neteller started trying to repair the damage to trust that its 7 month run-in with US Department of Justice authorities caused by using the popular free video streaming site Youtube.com this week to apologise to US customers.

A casually dressed Ron Martin, CEO of the company appeared in a videoed statement, recapping the events that caused his company to freeze US accounts for six months and exit the US market.

Martin revealed that he had been following blogs and other public opinion sites on the issue, and touched on the firm's weak communications with customers. This was unavoidable due to the sensitive nature of negotiations as his company battled its way through DoJ allegations before finally agreeing to pay a major $136 million penalty (see previous InfoPowa reports)

After reprising the key points in the plan for the return of US monies, Martin reiterated that payouts totalling some $94 million to hundreds of thousands of US players had started, and revealed that in the first day alone, $40 million had been despatched to US players. He apologised to those US customers who had been kept waiting so long, and thanked them for their patience. The issue of interest, which Neteller has announced it will not be paying, was not addressed.

Martin stressed the importance of trust and acknowledged that the company will now have to work hard to regain the trust of its customers in the wake of the US debacle.

The question of how much private information on US players had been divulged to the US authorities - if any at all - was not addressed.

The message can be viewed at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sT3HlcDE4c

Online Casino News courtesy of InfoPowa