ISRAELI AUTHORITIES BUST ONLINE CASINO
18 September 2009
But was it a legit action against an illegal
operation?
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports that a formal
model agent and two accomplices were arrested last week
on charges of operating an online casino, but that
questions have been posed on the legitimacy of the case
against them.
Asi Vaknin was named as the main
suspect, with Naftali Goldman and Yonatan Grimberg also
detained by police from the police International and
Serious Crimes division.
All three are suspected
of money laundering, and Vaknin may also face charges of
making threats. The three men are on bail until a
further court appearance this week after a remand judge
remarked that further evidence needed to be adduced.
Haaretz reports that police questioned Vaknin for
several hours at the International and Serious Crimes
Unit offices in Lod, but he maintained his right to
remain silent.
Last Friday morning, the three
suspects appeared at a remand hearing before the duty
judge, Esther Nachlieli-Khayat, at the Rishon Letzion
Magistrate's Court.
During the hearing, the
suspects' attorneys, Sasi Gez and Sharon Nahari, asked
for proof the business in question was not legal or
different from Internet gaming sites, the Haaretz report
continues, quoting Gez as saying:
"The company
in question has licenses. Everything is public and
visible. Weren't you in a hurry to make arrests?" Gez
asked the police representative, who responded that they
were in the initial stages of the investigation.
The judge also expressed doubts on whether Vaknin
had broken the law.
At one point, she said: "Tedi
Sagi [the reported owner of the Playtech company that
provides software for online gambling sites] was my
neighbor. I am somewhat familiar with the subject. What
is the difference between him and the suspects before
me?" .
The lead investigator in the case,
Superintendent Alon Shaharbani, replied that some of the
activity took place in Israel, and that police had to
arrest the suspects to catch them in the act and compare
their stories.
However, legal representative
Nahari told the court that several huge companies,
including Sagi's, had offices in Tel Aviv's Azrieli
office tower and are "traded on the London Stock
Exchange for billions of dollars, and other companies
give a legal license from the right governments to those
seeking it."
Haaretz reported that Nahari also
said that as long as Israeli gamblers are blocked from a
gambling Web site, and the site is managed abroad,
operating such a site is no crime.
The judge
said legal questions in the case "spanned the globe" and
needed to be answered before the case moves ahead.
Online Casino News Courtesy of
Infopowa
More news here.
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