Belize Busts Online Casino Pay Service for ID Theft, Laundering

A money exchange system to enable US residents to pay and be paid by online casinos was shut down by Belize police as the owners were charged with identification theft and money laundering.

Belize officials revealed that a raid shutting down Instadollar and Moneygram, two services that handled online funds transfers for Internet casinos, was due to charges of identification theft and money laundering. Instadollar was used by gaming patrons in the US, Turkey, and Peru.

Money transferred by these service would be passed through the Coye Money Exchange, which authorities assert was a front for a gang which had stolen the identities of Belize citizens to use as tools in the money transfer. Legitimate names and identification numbers were matched with phony addresses and fake signatures, and used to bring the cash into Belize before dispersing it,.

Authorities are still trying to ascertain how private drivers' license databases ended up in the control of the Coye family. Fultec Systems, which designed the software system carrying drivers' information, released a statement today denying any connection to the mishandled data.

Fultec says the City Council of Belize had notified the software company that the database had been compromised several times.

Coye family members were arrested in a December raid that ended the money exchange process through their company, and sized over $1.5 million in cash hidden on the premises.