ECHO AND FEDS CONFIRM NO CHARGES (Update)
30 March 2007
$2.3 million settlement clears the slate for
Electronic Clearing House
The Electronic Clearing House story carried by InfoPowa
yesterday had a brief sequel as both company officials
and the United States Attorney for the Southern District
of New York confirmed that the company's willingness to
surrender its profits and cooperate with the authorities
had saved it from any prosecution regarding its
involvement as an e-cash processor in online gambling.
In signing a non-prosecution agreement, Electronic
Clearing House Inc. (ECHO) agreed to pay $2.3-million
and fully cooperate with the government's continuing
investigation into "illegal" Internet gambling. ECHO
chairman Joel Barry said the $2.3-million represents
company profits since 2001 from processing and
collection services provided to companies, known as
e-wallets, that in turn provided financial transactions
for Internet gaming - process made illegal by the 2006
Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act.
On Wednesday, United States Attorney for the Southern
District of New York Michael Garcia said ECHO would not
face prosecution because it started to wind down its
e-wallet processing in October and has frozen
$21-million belonging to e-wallet companies.
At least some of these frozen funds will be the property
of US gamblers who used the Neteller e-wallet; the
biggest such company handled by ECHO was Neteller, which
in January halted services to United States customers
following the US arrest of two of its founders.
Barry said the Camarillo, California, company would not
face further prosecution.
"It's important to know that the government has assured
us it will not pursue further prosecution," Barry said.
"We want to get on with our business."
ECHO was involved in the transfer of money on behalf of
online payment services known as "e-wallets," which
mostly handled illegal transactions with online gambling
Web sites, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan said.
The company has been cooperating with prosecutors since
January and has agreed to disgorge $2.3 million,
representing the net proceeds from the services it
provided to e-wallets since 2001, the government said. A
criminal prosecution of ECH "would not serve the public
interest," the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
Online Casino News courtesy of InfoPowa
More news here.
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