U.S. indicts Internet gambling operators

[clevfan]

U.S. indicts Internet gambling operators
By Ben Ames, IDG News Service
May 18

The fugitive owners of a gambling Web site based on the Caribbean island of Antigua have laundered US$250 million in profits, according to charges brought by the U.S. Department of Justice.

WorldWide Telesports Inc. (WWTS) and its former owner, William Scott, and employee Jessica Davis have been charged with 12 counts of conspiracy, money laundering and failure to disclose foreign financial accounts, according to an indictment unsealed Tuesday by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Justice Department investigators said Scott and Davis are fugitives who have been on the run since being charged in a separate federal money laundering case in New York in March 1998.

In January 2003, Scott sold WWTS to Betcorp Ltd., in Melbourne, Australia, a publicly-traded company. Betcorp did not respond to requests for comment in time for this article.

According to Betcorp, WWTS still offers Internet, telephone and wireless wagering to customers worldwide. In 2003, it accepted more than $800 million in wagers and reporting earnings of $12.5 million. Over the company's lifetime, WWTS has paid out $6 billion to winning bettors, according to Betcorp.

According to the Justice Department charges, American sports fans used the WWTS website and toll-free numbers to bet on baseball, basketball, football, hockey and other sports. Between April 1998 and October 2004, WWTS made $250 million from those wagers.

Scott and Davis are charged with laundering that money through a series of shell corporations and foreign banks, and with violating the Wager Wire Act, which prohibits using the Internet, telephone and U.S. mail for interstate and foreign gambling.

Since filing the case on April 7, 2005, Justice Department investigators have been able to freeze $7 million of those funds after seizing an account at a bank in Guernsey, located off the coast of France.

According to the indictment, Scott founded WWTS in Antigua and Barbuda in 1995. He immediately began depositing the company's profits in foreign bank accounts, for $37 million in 1999 and $49 million in 2000.

He renounced his U.S. citizenship in 2004 and moved from Ohio to his homes on the Caribbean islands of Antigua and St. Maarten in the Netherlands Antilles. Davis was a WWTS employee.

They kept the money in 11 accounts at banks scattered through Antigua, St. Kitts, St. Maarten, Singapore, Canada, Australia and the Channel Islands. The indictment seeks to seize those accounts, as well as WWTS property, computers and control of the Web site.

[Boddie]

I guess I'm quite out of the loop, but I always wondered why he sold if business was that good? The most disturbing part here is the ability of the US to seize foriegn assets so easily. I was told long ago that French banks were the best place to keep accounts because of their intense dislike and non-cooperation in these matters? Where should one keep their money?

On the same note, do operators really sleep nights with their money inside Costa Rica banks?

[Total Square]

The indictment seeks to seize those accounts, as well as WWTS property, computers and control of the Web site.

that really sticks out here, despite being the last line in the story

[clevfan]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
WEDNESDAY, MAY 17, 2006
WWW.USDOJ.GOVCRM
(202) 514-2007
TDD (202) 514-1888

Money Laundering Indictment Unsealed Against Major Internet Gambling Site Operators, Alleges $250 Million In Online Wagers
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia unsealed an indictment yesterday against William Scott, Jessica Davis, Soulbury Ltd. and WorldWide Telesports, Inc., (WWTS) for offenses related to the laundering of an estimated $250 million worth of Internet gambling wagers, Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher announced today. This indictment underscores the Justice Department's commitment to attacking illegal Internet gambling concerns by using federal anti-money laundering laws.

The 12-count indictment, filed April 7, 2005, alleges that from April 1998 through the date of the indictment, Scott and Davis operated WWTS, one of several entities through which they illegally enticed gamblers to send funds from the United States to Antigua with the intent that these funds would be used for wagers on Internet casino games and sporting events, such as the National Football League's Super Bowl and the National Collegiate Athletic Association's men's basketball championship tournament, as well as baseball, hockey and other sporting events. The indictment alleges that wagers were placed by toll-free telephone numbers and through www.BetWWTS.com and other Internet websites controlled by the defendants. Soliciting such wagers over the Internet violates the Wire and Travel Acts. The indictment also alleges that by causing funds to be sent from places within the United States to places abroad with the intent to promote Wire and Travel Act violations, Scott and Davis engaged in a money laundering conspiracy.

Furthermore, the indictment specifies subsequent financial transactions made by Scott with the proceeds of this illegal gambling activity as separate money laundering violations, as well as alleges his failure to report foreign bank accounts to the Internal Revenue Service.

According to the indictment, Soulbury Limited is one of the "shell" corporations that Scott used to hide his personal profits from the illegal gambling enterprise, including $10 million of illegal proceeds that Scott attempted to hide in Guernsey, an independent state off the coast of France. The United States, with assistance from the Guernsey government, was able to restrain $7 million of these laundered gambling proceeds from the U.S. correspondent account of a foreign bank in a parallel civil forfeiture action filed in the District of Columbia in December 2003. Funds for wagers to be placed on, or funds paid out from, "offshore" Internet gambling sites violates U.S. law and such activities present a threat to the integrity of the country's financial system.

Scott and Davis are fugitives. The two were previously charged in a March 20, 1998, criminal complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, as a result of an FBI investigation into Wire Act violations for operating WWTS.

This case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney Mark Yost of the Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section of the Criminal Division. The related civil forfeiture action is being pursued by Deputy Chief Linda Samuel, Senior Trial Attorney Jack de Kluiver and Trial Attorney Robert Stapleton of the section's International Program Unit. The case is being investigated by the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation's International Grand Jury Task Force.

###

[The Doctor]

Shouldn't the headline have read "U.S. indicts FORMER Internet gambling operators" Scott has been out the business for over three years.

I thought they got indicted years ago. In the late 1990's??

[jjgold]

More privately owned books are going to get out of the business

THE USA is going after these guys very hard in the future

Pinnacle, Greek and others will get out

Its only a matter of time or do jail time

Public owned companies are a little more regulated and will try and do the right thing with taxes, ect

[Juice]

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: Total Square

The indictment seeks to seize those accounts, as well as WWTS property, computers and control of the Web site.



that really sticks out here, despite being the last line in the story</end quote></div>


What are the chances TS or anyone that the gov just wont go down there and start taking stuff or that they will pursue the same charges against others?

[nino brown]

so they want to seize something that the indicted don't even own? i

[BuzzRavanaugh]

I would think this is huge news, can't believe not more has been made out of this.

Is this the opening salving for the DOJ to go after books???

Is this just a publicity stunt in wake of the WTO?? Prove to Antigua we can't give you unfettered access to our markets because we consider it illegal and a crime.

Would love to hear what JC thinks.

[jimmy the greek]

the usa have entered a morality loop or ''spin'' and need to pull out of it

centuries from now when historians study the fall of the american empire this behavior will be seen as one cause

[OLD MAN]

when BETCORP took it over, didnt they unload all of the SHARP players????????????????

[skilled27]

the usa is the biggest hypocrite. every state has lottery games, which are just as addictive as sports gambling. plus the sports gambling is legal in several places here. the good ole usa hates it cause the taxable money is leaving the country.

[SlipperyPete]

How can they go after profits which are legal in the country they were earned???

[Kid Dynomite]

The days of the neighborhood bookie will come back full circle!!

Hurray!!

F-Spiro and those Sleezeballs!!

[OLD MAN]

just wait until the DOJ looks at the hard drives on those puters and founds everybodys name who has been playing with WWTS and
the balances in their accounts.......................................... .................................................. ...............................................

[Juice]

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: OLD MAN

just wait until the DOJ looks at the hard drives on those puters and founds everybodys name who has been playing with WWTS and

the balances in their accounts.......................................... .................................................. ...............................................</end quote></div>



Bingo Old Man and its what I think they are after.

[Total Square]

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: Kid Dynomite

The days of the neighborhood bookie will come back full circle!!



Hurray!!



F-Spiro and those Sleezeballs!!</end quote></div>

putz

[MTA]

I thought once indicted and you proved innocent it's over. This is not the first time WWTS was indicted. They were one of the first ones that the feds investigated years ago and was acquitted. Why always WWTS?[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-confused.gif[/img]

[all-in]

MTA, to my knowledge WWTS/Bill Scott was not acquitted. In 1997 when JC, Bill Scott and the rest of the gang of 12 got indicted everyone pled guilty except JC, BS, and JC's partners. Jc went to trial and was found guilty and to this day his "former" partners and Bill Scott remain fugitives. These are new charges from Washington DOJ where the other charges were filed in the Southern District of NY by the wonderful US attorney Mary Jo White.