NETeller - Claims By The Prosecution
Published: Tuesday, January 16, 2007 Online-Casinos.com
CLAIMS BY THE PROSECUTION
What the feds say Lawrence and Lefebvre did wrong
The two Neteller ex-directors now in US federal custody have the wealth and apparently the will to engage in a protracted legal battle against the allegations made against them. This has drawn attention to the details of the case, which has apparently been under investigation since June 2006, according to the FBI special agent responsible, Maryann Goldman.
Goldman entered the charges before the honourable Debra S. Freeman, a US Magistrate Judge in her court in the Southern District of New York. The "County of Offence" is listed as New York/Westchester.
The charges against Lawrence read:
1. From in or about June 1999, up to and including in or about January 2007, in the Southern District of New York and elsewhere, STEPHEN ERIC LAWRENCE, the defendant, and others known and unknown, unlawfully, willfully and knowingly did combine, conspire, confederate, and agree together and with each other to violate Section 1956(a)(2)(A) of Title 18, United States Code.
2. It was a part and an object of the conspiracy that STEPHEN ERIC LAWRENCE, the defendant, and others known and unknown, would and did transport, transmit, and transfer monetary instruments and funds from a place in the United States to and through a place outside the United States and to a place in the United States from and through a place outside the United States with the intent to promote the carrying on of specified unlawful activity, to wit, the operation of illegal gambling businesses in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1955, the illegal transmission of wagers and gambling information, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1084, and the commission of gambling offenses in violation of both New York State Penal Law, Article 225, and anti-gambling statutes in other states.
Goldman goes on to detail "overt acts" which include the formation of the Neteller group in company with Levfebre to provide online payment services to internet gambling businesses.
"Beginning in or about July 2000, and continuing up to in or about December 2003, LAWRENCE, CC#1, and others affiliated with the Neteller Group offered online payment services through Neteller Inc., a Canadian corporation, to various internet gambling businesses so that these businesses could illegally access customers in the United States, including customers in and around New York City," she continues. Similar claims are made regarding the period January 2004 to January 2007 regarding Neteller operations on the Isle of Man.
The special agent alleges that the accuseds and other Neteller employees raised $70 million in an IPO on the London Stock Exchange to expand the business.
Goldman reveals that she has been involved in an FBI investigation of the case since June last year, and claims: "The investigation has revealed that Neteller PLC conducts and facilitates illegal financial transactions between gambling customers in the United States and numerous offshore online gambling businesses."
She adds: "This complaint is based upon my involvement in the investigation, my conversations with other law enforcement officials and witnesses, and my examination of reports, records, and tapes. Because this complaint is being submitted for the limited purpose of establishing probable cause, it does not include all the facts that I have learned during the course of this investigation. Where the contents of documents and the actions, statements, and conversations of others are reported herein, they are reported in substance and in part, except where otherwise indicated.
The investigation also involved checking the official statements and records of Neteller, describing the history, development and services of the group, from which she quotes details of the IPO prospectus and those involved. ".....more than 95 percent of the revenues generated by the Neteller Group, is derived from processing money transfers pertaining to the online gambling market; and that on or about March 1, 2004, Neteller PLC had 685,945 member accounts, of which approximately 88 percent belonged to North American residents," she quotes from the documentation.
Financial details published by the company in 2004, 2005 and 2006 are also described in some detail, including first half of 2006, when Neteller PLC processed $5.1 billion in financial transactions, and that approximately 85 percent of Neteller PLC's revenue during that period derived from individuals in North America.
Details of a Neteller conference call with financial analysts are discussed, and the agent reveals that as part of the investigation, US law enforcement officers and a cooperating American witness posed as gambling customers and conducted online monetary transactions with numerous online gambling businesses using online payment processing services provided by Neteller PLC to gamble on the Internet. Some of these are detailed.
Records of ACH, wire services and other financial instruments are also explained.
Finally, Special Agent Goldman details Neteller official public statements to show the active management involvement with the company (prior to standing down) of Lawrence, using these to indicate that he was aware that the US activity was illegal.
