Ex-NETeller Detainee Now In New York
Published: Saturday, January 20, 2007 Online-Casinos.com
EX-NETELLER DETAINEE NOW IN NEW YORK
Lawrence pays massive bail and is extradited to New York
The retired Canadian businessman and ex-NETeller director Stephen Lawrence is now in Manhattan under strict bail conditions that prevent him from leaving the United States.
The NETeller founder was released into the custody of an FBI agent this week and escorted to New York after posting $5-million US bail in the Virgin Islands following a court appearance before District Court Judge Geoffrey Barnard.
Prosecutors said that Lawrence (46) had posted $4 million of the bail with $2.5 million cash and $1.5 million through a Manhattan apartment.
Lawrence and another NETeller founder, John Lefebvre (55) were arrested on warrants related to a charge of conspiracy to transfer funds with the intent to promote illegal gambling. The charge was brought by federal prosecutors in Manhattan in a complaint unsealed last Monday.
Lefebvre was arrested on Monday in Malibu, California.
On his arrival in New York, Lawrence appeared at a hearing at Magistrate's Court in Manhattan on Friday.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy Treanor argued that Lawrence was a flight risk because he owned a private jet and had founded a business in which the "entire premise" was to "stay outside the jurisdiction of U.S. law enforcement."
Treanor said that Lawrence knew which jurisdictions outside the United States were lax about extraditing fugitives wanted for money laundering offences.
"It would be difficult for us to ever get him back again," Treanor said.
Lawrence's lawyer, Peter Neiman, argued at Friday's hearing that his client was not a flight risk because he has a wife and child in New York City and was buying a second apartment in the city, where he spends about 100 days a year.
According to federal prosecutors Lawrence resides in the Bahamas.
Under the terms of his bail set on Friday, Lawrence is not allowed to travel outside New York City until March 1. Thereafter, if he showed that he was not going to flee, he would be allowed to travel within the continental United States if he gave authorities five business days notice.
Lawrence has founded and built a number of companies both in and outside the online sector, according to NETeller's online financial statements.
His ties to Calgary in the Alberta province of Canada date back to the 1990s when he worked as a principal with Cavendish Investing Ltd., a Calgary-based private venture capital firm.
Lawrence, according to NETeller's online statements, spent time in the Alberta property development industry and became interested in the emerging online e-commerce sector.
He identified the concept of the NETeller System in 1999 and served as CEO of the NETeller Group until December 2002.
A judge in Los Angeles earlier set bail at $5 million for Lawrence's companion NETeller founder, John Lefebvre. He is expected to arrive for a court appearance in New York on January 26, prosecutors said.
NETeller, which abandoned its huge US business and more than 65 percent of its income immediately following the arrests, is the latest target of what seems to be a U.S. crackdown on online gaming, beginning with the arrest of BetonSports Chief Executive David Carruthers in Texas last July.
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