Two Men Charged With Laundering in Online Casino Case
The Baltimore City Paper has uncovered documents revealing the filing of federal money laundering charges against two men involved in transactions relating to funds belonging to Bodog.com online casino. Edward Courdy and Michael Garone were charged by federal authorities in a Maryland court, although neither is in custody.
Federal government proceedings have led to a forfeiture finding against Bodog related bank accounts in the amount of $24 million. Courdy and ZIP Payments had filed a claim against over $9 million of the suspect funds on September 29th, and the same day, authorities brought the laundering charges.
Maryland is the home site for the case because it was the state in which an undercover agent gambled at Bodog and other online casinos. The forfeiture case involves the seizure of money being moved through foreign banks to the United States for payments from and to Bodog, a popular online gambling site.
The forfeiture was filed in April of 2007, after the passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act made financial transactions involving online casinos illegal in the United States.
Although Garone and his company, JBL Services, did not contest the seizure of over $14 million, the laundering charges against both men seem spurred by Courdy's decision to contest the one forfeiture. Department of Justice policy has been to persecute executives of Internet casinos that operated in the U.S., regardless of jurisdiction questions.
Authorities have used the threat of ominous felony charges to extract agreements to pay fines, allow forfeitures, and even accept smaller jail sentences, as accused executives seek to protect threatened family members. The actions of federal law enforcement have been morally shameful, if not illegal.
