Pokerstars, Fulltilt & Absolute Poker

In a surprising move that has shocked the online gambling worldwide, the FBI and District Attorney for Manhattan have filed a series of charges against current and former owners and employees of 3 of the worlds largest online poker sites. Pokerstars.com’s founder Isai Shineberg, CEO Raymond Bitar of the software company running fulltiltpoker.com and 9 other employees of numerous affiliated companies have been named in the indictments. Among the charges are accusations of money laundering, false statements on federal tax declarations and directing others within their company and other registered corporations who ” deceived or directed others to deceive United States banks and financial institutions into processing billions of dollars in payments.”

The 51 page indictment makes it clear that the named parties participated in a well thought out and calculated scheme to set up numerous shell companies who would direct American player payments through companies appearing as everything from prepaid debit cards to online pet supply stores.

According to the most recent analysis pokerstars and fulltilt receive as much as 1.6 billion dollars respectively from the US markets. This number will be complete cut for now as both companies have declared a suspension of wagers from their American based players until a decision has been made by their respective legal teams on how they will proceed.

No matter what the future has in stock for these giants of the online gaming industries, a shift is occurring in the Department of Justice’s attitude towards how to deal these and other companies within the industry. Since 2006 the DoJ has been tracking down, indicting an incarcerating individuals responsible for processing payments emanating from American based players. Speculation and logic would indicate that the Federal Governments have learned from these case and the individuals named and charged and have now compiled enough evidence to pursue the source of the alleged fraud. The DoJ amongst other charges against the aforementioned corporations has filled for civil damages amounting to over 3 billion in damages.

The FBI has seized pokerstars.com, fulltilt.com and absolutepoker.com domains.