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NETeller Shaken Down For $136 Million - 08-08-07
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Author: Marc
August 8 - NETeller was shaken down in a way that would have made the old Mafia Dons proud. The US Attorney's office made the listed, publicly traded company an offer they couldn't refuse: enter into a DPA (deferred prosecution agreement) for two years and pay a "fine" of $136 million, and all their problems will go away.
The good news is that the $60 million that the DOJ seized while NETeller was under investigation counts towards the total. Hey they're extorting money but it's not like they're heartless or anything. NETeller also gets a generous timeframe to make the remaining payments.
If NETeller misses the October 15 deadline for the next $40 million installment agents from the DOJ will presumably arrive in England and remove company directors, perhaps taking them to Egypt or some other exotic locale for a spot of "rendition".
NETeller, in true Orwellian fashion, had to publicly admit that they operated unlawfully and knowingly aided illegal transactions between internet gambling operators and US residents.
The problem here is that no one is willing to fight this hypocrisy, test the limits of an anachronistic law (the Wire Act), which predates Al Gore's discovery of the Internet, and point out that the US government behaves like a bloated tyranny.
See online poker players just want their money back - that $94 million that floated around in limbo after NETeller went for a little ride with the US authorities and ended up soiling themselves in the woods begging for their lives and willing to do anything if they could just see their families again. The online poker players get their cash back, the US government gets some cash, and NETeller executives don't go to prison.
Shouldn't there be outrage here? What happened to righteous indignation in the face of corrupt authority? Bob Dylan went electric, the revolution was traded in for a 401k plan, and hey we still have pre-paid debit cards on the sly (for now), so why don't I just load up a bong, relax and play a Stars SNG?
You know what, come to think of it I'm not even American, I just reside here part of the year and watch mystified as a nation painlessly allows their hallowed freedoms to dissipate before their cataract eyes - I'm prouder to have a German passport than to pledge my allegiance to this place and that's really saying something, and as for NETeller they'll always have Paris as well as burgeoning Far East markets.
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