Probably not the full 5-years but a huge fine is likely — the Feds are seeking 100-Mil. Stephen Lawrence, a founder of Neteller, appeared to plead guilty before Judge Castel in Manhattan Federal court as part of a plea bargain where he agreed to cooperate with the government. This leaves former Neteller President/co-founder John Lefebvre still out in the cold.
Mr. Fink Lawrence, as a government witness, can visit Canada and the Bahamas until his sentencing date of October 29. He says he’s happy to have this behind him. Does this leave Lefebvre as the one the Feds will try to hang out and dry? I doubt it. The sentencing hearing for Lawrence will be definative; but, its looking like the government is just trying to get its pound of flesh in fines and perp walking without having the legality adjudicated.
This is all familiar with the BetonSports situation with the government trying the divide and conquer strategy in preliminary pretrial activity in that case.
The real problem for Neteller seems to be that it allowed transfer of fund to bookmaking operations. The UIGEA isn’t part of all this; it is the Wire Act that is the foundation of the governments operation. Today, sites don’t co-mingle funds between the book and poker tables. This is also true between casino play and poker. You’re seeing a requirement to move fund from your poker account to the more questionable areas. This seems to be the fatal flaw that got the Neteller execs. They were transferring to