Bodog in Trouble???

[bpd67]

Louie, any update on this!!!


Feds Hound Bodog
Janet Novack and William P. Barrett 07.30.08, 6:35 PM ET



Calvin Ayre Has $23M in Funds Seized by US Government




The U.S. government recently seized $24 million from bank accounts linked to Bodog, the giant, illegal-under-U.S.-law Internet gaming operation founded by Canadian tycoon Calvin Ayre.

Federal filings make very clear that a serious criminal investigation of the Bodog enterprise is ongoing. At a minimum, word of the seizures is likely to rattle the confidence of U.S.-based online gamblers that they will receive their winnings, not only from Bodog but from the industry's other remaining participants.

Detailed in court filings in a Baltimore federal court, the Bodog-related seizures from such well-known institutions as Wachovia (nyse: WB - news - people ), Bank of America (nyse: BAC - news - people ), SunTrust Banks (nyse: STI - news - people ) and Regions Bank, a unit of Regions Financial (nyse: RF - news - people ), increase the possibility of criminal action against Ayre himself. There already has been published speculation in his native Canada that he is under secret indictment somewhere in the U.S.

The U.S. attorney's office in Baltimore, which launched the two lawsuits to take the $24 million, did not respond to a request for comment.

The flamboyant Ayre--media reports often call him a "playboy"--is now believed to be in Antigua and Barbuda, a country in the eastern Caribbean. He has denied being on the lam. A request on Wednesday for comment from Ayre, sent through the Web site of his Antigua-based Calvin Ayre Foundation, was not immediately returned. Nor were call and e-mail messages sent to public relations contacts listed on Bodog's Web site.

In early 2006 Ayre rocketed to international prominence--and the cover of Forbes magazine' annual issue on the world's billionaires--for his stewardship from Costa Rica of Bodog Entertainment Group and his open flouting of authorities in the U.S., his major market. The story headline: "Catch Me If You Can." The operation was said at the time to be handling $7.3 billion yearly in poker, casino and sports event wagers.

But since then, Ayre has been the subject of law-enforcement raids abroad and growing regulatory scrutiny, especially in the U.S. In late 2006 President Bush signed a law strengthening the prohibition on online gambling. Ayre fell off the Forbes worldwide billionaires list after just one year, amid a decline in his industry's fortunes.

In overall actions against the industry, federal prosecutors in New York have charged executives of Neteller with illegally processing online gaming transactions. This summer, Canada's ESI Entertainment Systems, an Internet payment business, entered into a "deferred prosecution agreement" with the same prosecutors. The company admitted to criminal wrongdoing and agreed to disgorge $9.1 million in criminal proceeds for its role in processing $2 billion in Internet gambling payments for hundreds of thousands of U.S. customers. Criminal cases have been started against various online gambling shops.

Ayre has been trying to put legal distance between himself and the operation he founded in the 1990s. For years its business was run through Internet servers belonging to Mohawk Internet Technologies, located on the Kahnawake Reserve Indian reservation in Quebec, Canada. In September 2007 Bodog said its North American operations would be licensed to Morris Mohawk Group, also located on the reservation and run by tribal chief Alwyn Morris.

Three months ago, Ayre, now 47, said he had transferred ownership of Bodog itself to Morris Mohawk Group. "It's true; I'm packing it in," Ayre wrote on a Web site.

Court filings in Maryland say that in January and February a total of $14.2 million was seized from accounts in the name of JBL Services and Transaction Solutions at Wachovia, Regions Bank, Bank of America and Sun Trust Bank. In July, filings say, another $9.9 million was found in eight accounts at Nevada State Bank, a unit of Zion Bancorporation (nasdaq: ZION - news - people ), in the name of Zaftig Instantly Processed Payments, doing business as ZipPayments.com. The companies are described as helping to facilitate parts of the Bodog operation.

The court papers detail an elaborate international structure put together to allow Bodog to collect money and write checks to winning gamblers in the U.S. One affidavit by Randall S. Carrow, a special agent with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service's Criminal Investigation Division, said that $248 million involving entities linked to Bodog was processed through Wachovia Bank, from which $11 million of the $24 million was seized.

In a statement to Forbes, Wachovia said the bank cooperated with law enforcement, doesn't knowingly allow Internet gaming operations to open accounts, and the funds ending up at the bank were in accounts of a third-party credit card servicer. The statement also hinted that various accounts might have been kept open at the request of investigators to aid their efforts.

According to Carrow's detailed sworn statements, the IRS's Criminal Investigation Division started looking at Bodog in 2003 and opened a formal probe in 2006. The extensive sleuthing has involved close examination of public and bank records, the enlisting of unnamed cooperating witnesses and informants, and undercover efforts to make bets on football and collect winnings.

Ayre, says Carrow's statement, is president of Middleton Financial, a Nevada corporation described as a key cog in the U.S. Bodog machinery, as well as Stratham Finance, said to be based in Malta. Other entities linked to Ayre in the court filings are Gateway Financial Services, EBanx Ltd., Gregor Financial Ltd. and Calvtek Industries. The filings list dozens of businesses involved in processing Bodog transactions.

The ongoing federal pressure to disrupt Bodog's financial transactions may be bearing fruit. Carrow's affidavits say several checks issued from Bodog to its undercover gambler bounced.

A break in the inquiry came in May, one of Carrow's affidavits says, when an undercover operative for "another state's gambling commission" received a check that didn't bounce from an account at Nevada State Bank, which is headquartered in Las Vegas. That led to the $9.9 million seizure this month. The bank had no immediate comment.

Carrow's affidavits were filed in connection with the U.S.'s successful efforts to get a federal judge to authorize the seizures. But to keep the money permanently, federal prosecutors must file a civil lawsuit and allow a challenge by anyone with a claimed interest. No one fought the $14.2 million seizure, and it was ordered forfeited to the feds. The lawsuit over the $9.9 million--its official name is United States of America v. $9,869,283.05--was just filed.

Even before the advent of Bodog, Ayre carried considerable baggage. Close family members were convicted of drug trafficking. (Ayer himself was never charged.) In 1996 Ayre was banned for 20 years from the British Columbia securities industry for stock market offenses. By that time, he was already moving into online gaming.

"One of the things that drives me is the excitement that I could fail," he told Forbes in 2006. "What better buzz can you get?"

[grandmaster]

found the link...

Feds Hound Bodog - Forbes.com

[Louie]

I have read about 100 articles on this today. I have to get more information for the people at Bodog to see what they have to say about this. I will let you know when I get more information. No use panicking.

[Louie]

ForMohawks Respond to Forbes Bodog Article Regarding Seizures

An article was recently released on Forbes.com that creates several misimpressions that the Morris Mohawk Gaming Group feels compelled to clarify for our customers.

As most of our customers already know, all operators outsource payment processing functions to third parties and these payment processors are subject to regulatory constraints wherever they operate, and, occasionally in the US, are subject to legal action because of the uncertain legal environment there.

However, the seizure of funds from these US payment processors was mischaracterized in this article, which refers to two specific legal cases against US processors. Rightly or wrongly, the article does not make a clear distinction between these cases, which, as a result, paints a misleading picture.

The facts are these: the first of these cases - relating to a seizure of funds from a processor known as JBL Services - happened some time ago and has absolutely nothing to do with the current payment processing challenges being experienced in the US. The constraints being experienced by payment processors in the US are universal in that region and not specific to any particular processor or site. Also, note that not one single player failed to get paid when this processor was disrupted.

The second case refers to a payment processor known as Zippayments.com and seizure of funds from this processor's bank accounts in Nevada. The article falsely implies - but notably does not go so far as to state - that $9.9M seized from Zippayment's Nevada bank accounts were funds on account for "Bodog". This is simply false.

Processing partners with whom the Morris Mohawk Gaming Group does business are sophisticated organizations that are perfectly clear as to the actual facts of these cases and their contexts. They are unfazed by such media hype and Morris Mohawk wishes to ensure that its customers are similarly informed. Customer deposits are safe and every player has and will always be paid.

Alwyn Morris
C.E.O.
Morris Mohawk Gaming Group

[Louie]

(Moving this thread to the news stand.)

My current position on this Forbes article is this: I still feel that your money is safe with Bodog and is not worth panicking over. This is a company that has spent the last 20 years building a solid reputation in this industry and building a good standing presence on the web. I am not going to let one blown-out-of-proportion Forbes article sway my opinion on this company that has don nothing but help this forum and treat its customer with loyalty. There have been no reports of players not getting paid from Bodog and one of these bank seizures took place months ago. This company has a lot more then 24 million dollars. I have never made a cash-out and didn't get my money from them. Therefore, I will happily play there this football season and until I see a valid and legitamite reason that I shouldn't, I will continue to play there.

I have yet to hear from my Bodog contact regarding this Frobe article. I will let you all know what he has to say when I do hear from them.

[Louie]

I received an email from my contact at Bodog and he says there is no need for panic and that this Forbes article was blown way out of proportion. Some at Bodog are saying that Forbes did it in effort to create a clean image after putting Calvin Arye on the cover of Forbes. He also said the statment that I posted is their offical statement regarding this Forbe article.

I am also to speak with him on the phone on Monday and he says he will talk with me more if I have any other questions. It doesn't seem like they are hiding anything. So, if you guys have any questions that you would like me to ask him, I will be happy to relay any concerns. Just let me know.

As for now, my money is currently in Bodog and will continue to play with them until I have solid evidence that I shouldn't be. I trust this book as they have never screwed any player that I back and they have been a top supporter of this site since it's opening in 2000. Once Forbes article isn't going to change that. There have also been several attempt by U.S. DOJ lawmakers to take this operation down and they are still standing strong.

Why can't the Feds find something worth while to spend their time on. Online Gambling...plllleeeeaaase...

[bpd67]

Thanks for the update Louie.

[Studplayr]

one thing that bothers me is the way the Feds are handling the whole thing and I don,t think the issue is going to stop with one sportsbook. What they are doing is planting phoney bettors on books accounts. These bettors after playin awhile are requesting payoutsby check.
Then when the check is issued and the Feds see the account it is drawn on they go to that bank and snatch whatever funds are in said account. This i,m sure is one reason for many bounced checks. unless the books find another way to payoff other than using a financial institution I feel many of them will be in trouble.

[Louie]

one thing that bothers me is the way the Feds are handling the whole thing and I don,t think the issue is going to stop with one sportsbook. What they are doing is planting phoney bettors on books accounts. These bettors after playin awhile are requesting payoutsby check.
Then when the check is issued and the Feds see the account it is drawn on they go to that bank and snatch whatever funds are in said account. This I,m sure is one reason for many bounced checks. unless the books find another way to payoff other than using a financial institution I feel many of them will be in trouble.

It's really not that simple Stud. These books are very creative and seem to be one step ahead of the DOJ. If it were that simple, you really think these books would still be operating? These books frequently switch their processers snd banks enough that they're not going to be using the same banks every month or even week. Also, there is a reason books ask for verification of the person who is making the cashout and opening the account. They don't just mail checks out to 'fake people'. These books also have their own people looking out for suspicious accounts and keep in contact with each other in this fight. And again, they dont just mail checks to anyone.

Don't you find it odd that they only seized 24 million dollars TOTAL over a 3 year span and Bodog is still making daily payouts by check?? Bodog is worth a lot more then 24 millions dollars. Again, it going to take a lot more then seizing 24 million dollars in bank accounts to bring a down a powerful company like Bodog down. The resources and money that it would take for the DOJ to shut down all of these books is unbelievable.

For every deposit option that is shut down another one opens. For every processor and bank that they shut down, another 5 open And for ever boook investigated, another 20 open. There a new options for online playerpopping up all over the Internet all the time.

These people have been trying to bring down the online betting industry for over a decade now and they won't win this fight. They thought that law they snuck into congress on an earmark was going to change things and it only made this industry stronger. I compare this fight to alcohol prohibition. People enjoy betting and they are going to do it no matter what. This is a fight that the people are going to one day claim victory on.