A resident of Illinois confessed on Monday, in front of the federal court, accepting his help in allowing the large online poker websites to duck the U.S. gambling laws. He was processing millions of dollars through bank payments from his home, in Illinois, to Costa Rica while he deceived the banks regarding the nature of these transactions. The person involved in this crime, nicknamed "payment processor," is actually 41-year-old Bradley Franzen, who pled guilty in New York. He has confessed the criminal charges he was charged with i.e. conspiracy to commit bank fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering and being part of operating an illegal gambling business. Experts have calculated that, regardless of his confession, he will be most probably imprisoned for at least 30 years time.
Image via WikipediaFranzen is only one of the total eleven individuals indicted by the federal prosecutors in New York last month; the authorities immediately apprehended all the involved Internet domain names as a reaction, including Absolute Poker, Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars. Online gambling has been kept illegal in the United States since 2006. Overall the charges indicted by the prosecutors accuses the companies for appointing people to help them avoid the regulatory authorities and banks, while the processed $3 billion worth of payments illegally out of the country.
Franzen who was currently residing in Illinois also owns a home in Costa Rica, he confessed in front of the court informing that he was contacted by an Internet poker company back in 2009. He declared that "I was aware that most U.S. banks did not process the payments ... and I understood U.S. law prohibits it." Upon the inquiry by the U.S. Magistrate Judge, Kevin Nathaniel Fox, regarding the amount of money involved, Franzen added "I do understand in general terms that it was millions of dollars, but I don't know how much." He also told the court that he carried out majority of his work from his residence in Costa Rica.
The lawyer representing Mr. Franzen, Sam Schmidt, refuses to give any comment or reveal any information regarding the contents of what the judge referred as "agreements and understandings" with the government filed in letter of 10th May. Three of these eleven indicted individuals are the owner of above mentioned websites, while the rest eight were their appointed partners in crime, all currently resting outside the United States.
No comments:
Post a Comment