A defense lawyer, renowned for dealing in financial and corporate criminal activity, publicized to the gambling industry on Tuesday that the federal indictments of Black Friday were not meant to be attacks on internet gambling.
Fred Heather stated that the federal case against PokerStars, Full Tilt, Absolute Poker, and UB is revolving around the money laundering and financial crimes of the institutions, not the practice of online gambling. Online gambling, according to Heather, is too lucrative an industry (producing billions of dollars in revenue each year) to be targeted directly.
“The heart of this case is this collateral activity, which constitutes bank fraud and money laundering,” Heather said. “One of the indications of that is the fact that the government isn’t resisting the return of money to the players through their deposits.”
The Black Friday indictments have charged the poker sites’ executives with money laundering, defrauding banks, and processing illegal transactions. The New York prosecutors presume to recoup $3 billion. Heather contends that the federal incitements have more to do with the financial crimes than online gambling itself.
Heather said, “You’ve got to sell a lot of golf balls to process millions of dollars.” None of the indicted companies have said much regarding the indictments, but both players and industry associates have displayed much retaliatory anger against both the Justice Department and the U.S. attorney in New York.
Heather commented that the prosecutors have a history of chasing financial fraud, regardless of industry, making the poker sites a prime target. “They will pull the trigger on very complicated cases,” Heather said. “They’re sophisticated. And they’re good. And they’re successful.”