The founders of Full Tilt Poker, PokerStars and Absolute Poker could face up to 20 years in jail if found guilty of breaching US anti-gambling and money laundering laws.

US investigators said the websites, two of which are registered in the UK, had “concocted an elaborate criminal fraud” to trick and bribe banks into “massive money laundering and bank fraud”.

The US Department of Justice (DoJ) seized the companies’ bank accounts and took control of their US websites, which now display an FBI warning about the illegality of online gambling.
It is against the law for US citizens to gamble online, but many Americans have continued to bet via foreign websites operating illegally.
Analysts said the DoJ probe was “great news” for British gambling companies that have not sought to circumvent US laws because authorities are likely to “reward” them if and when regulated online gambling is introduced in the
Warwick Bartlett, chief executive of Global Betting and Gaming Consultants, said: “The likes of Bwin.Party, Betfair, Ladbrokes and William Hill, which have not illegally taken bets in the US, are more likely to win licences there.”
British poker sites are also expected to see a return of big-spending European poker players, known as whales, who had been attracted to Full Tilt, PokerStars and Absolute because it gave them the chance to play against America’s most famous players. “Now that the big American whales won’t be there, Full Tilt and the others have lost one of the key attractions,” said a gambling industry source.
Online poker chat rooms suggest European players are already withdrawing funds from the affected sites. British websites expect to experience a big uplift in players tonight, traditionally the biggest night of the week for online poker. Preet Bharara, a US attorney, said: “These defendants are alleged to have concocted an elaborate criminal fraud scheme, alternately tricking some US banks and effectively bribing others to assure the continued flow of billions in illegal gambling profits.
“Moreover, as we allege, in their zeal to circumvent the gambling laws, the defendants also engaged in money laundering and bank fraud.”
The DoJ alleges that the companies and 11 men charged in connection with the crime, tricked, lied and colluded with banks to transfer the stakes and proceeds of gambling.
“These defendants, knowing that their business with US customers and US banks was illegal, tried to stake the deck,” said Janice Fedarcyk, the head of the FBI’s New York office.
Raymond Bitar, chief executive of Full Tilt, said yesterday he was “surprised and disappointed” by the decision to bring the charges and said he looked forward to his “exoneration”. The other companies did not comment.
The other defendants include Isai Scheinberg, the 64-year-old founder of PokerStars; Paul Tate, a PokerStars employee; Nelson Burtnick, of Full Tilt Poker and Scott Tom and Brent Beckley of Absolute Poker.

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Christy Kinahan is out on bail in Spain as authorities build a drug and money laundering case. He is believed to be Ireland's biggest ever crime boss.

 Christy Kinahan remains the top suspect for the murder of The Don nearly one year ago.

As the first anniversary of Eamon Dunne's murder approaches, gardai now believe that Kinahan's gang contracted a north inner city crew to kill the gang boss.

Detectives are set to arrest a number of suspects as they build a case against a hitman from the Cabra area.

A ruthless group of young inner city gangsters are believed to have carried out the professional hit after receiving logistical support and advice from two of Kinahan's own cronies.

Dunne (34) was shot dead on April 23, 2010, as he sat drinking in The Faussagh House pub in Cabra, north Dublin, at a pal's birthday party.

He was shot six times in the head and body, in view of his daughter, and died instantly.

the murder investigation was linked to Kinahan, a fortnight before his massive drug empire was crushed in a police operation that spanned three continents.

The mobster is out on bail in Spain as authorities build a drug and money laundering case. He is believed to be Ireland's biggest ever crime boss.

In Dublin, dectectives have pieced together the background to The Don's murder.

It is believed that in the weeks before his death Dunne was contacted by an associate of Kinahan's. This individual advised Dunne to raise the price he was charging for cocaine, because he was undercutting the rest of the dealers in Dublin, most of whom Kinahan was supplying.

Dunne, who reportedly had become increasingly erratic because of his own cocaine use, apparently refused to do so.

According to security sources, Kinahan then told associates that Dunne was also a serious liability due to the number of murders he had ordered.

A source said: "When Kinahan spoke, you listened, that's was the rule if you were dealing in Dublin. But Dunne was too pig-headed and insisted that no one was going to tell him what to charge for his product.

"He also had connections to 12 or more murders, which was drawing a huge amount of garda attention on him and his associates. The decision was made that he would have to be removed."

Six people have been arrested so far in the year-long investigation into the murder.

A garda spokesperson told the Herald that the murder inquiry was still live and anyone with fresh information is asked to contact them.

"There has been a significant number of arrests during this course of this investigation and other investigations arising from the murder of Eamon Dunne which is ongoing," he said.

Dunne was sitting next to his 17-year-old daughter in the Cabra pub on April 23 when two gunmen entered and fired up to a dozen shots.

One of the men walked up to Dunne and shot him a number of times in the back of the head and fired more shots after Dunne had hit the ground.

The second gunman, who was armed with a revolver, stood just inside the pub door with his gun at the ready to shoot anybody who tried to lunge at the gunman.

Two other men waited outside the pub in a Volkswagen Passatt which was used as a getaway car by the four-man murder team.

The car was abandoned not far from the scene but an attempt to burn it failed.

One of the suspected hitmen in the case was arrested last year. His house was riddled with bullets shortly after his release from garda custody.

The man, who does not have any serious convictions, is understood to have been involved in a bloody fight with The Don in the weeks before his death.

He is an associate of Craig White (24), who is serving a life sentence for the murder of gangster Noel Roche (27) in 2005.

The murder weapon has yet to be recovered.

The Don had a long list of enemies and his gang was linked to up to a dozen murders in Dublin.

He was suspected of ordering the murder of gang boss Marlo Hyland in 2006.

Innocent plumber Anthony Campbell was gunned down at the same time as Hyland so no witnesses would be left behind.

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Prince and the Duchess of Cornwall arrived in Rabat amid continuing protests against the country's undemocratic regime, and paid their respects at the Mausoleum of Mohammed V, where the late king and his son Hassan II are buried.

The Prince and the Duchess of Cornwall arrived in Rabat amid continuing protests against the country's undemocratic regime, and paid their respects at the Mausoleum of Mohammed V, where the late king and his son Hassan II are buried.
The reign of Hassan II, who died in 1999, was marred by the deaths of hundreds of people who protested against his regime, including more than 300 people who were killed during demonstrations and 174 who died in custody.
Morocco is in the middle of a "peaceful revolution" after the present king, Mohammed VI, promised to give up his executive powers, including the right to choose the prime minister and other ministers, following widespread street protests in the past two months.
Fouad Abdelmoumni, an economist and pro-democracy campaigner, suggested the timing of the Prince's visit to Hassan II's tomb was far from ideal.
He said: "Some people would think that it's not the best time for him to do this kind of thing, and not the best place to visit."

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Spain has no need of an international financial rescue, according to Dominique Strauss-Kahn

Spain has no need of an international financial rescue, according to Dominique Strauss-Kahn, head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

"I don't believe that the Spanish government needs any type of financial aid," he said in an interview with the Spanish newspaper El Pais.

The comments will be seen as a vote of confidence that austerity measures imposed by Madrid could be working.

The IMF is a key body monitoring Europe's debt-laden economies.

"We have not received any request for help from the Spanish government," Mr Strauss-Kahn said.

"I believe that the policies that the Spanish government has implemented, as much on the fiscal side as in the reform of pensions, the labour market or in banking, are the correct policies," he continued.

"And what I see is that over the last few months, Spain has been put in the same bag as other countries, such as Greece, when they are clearly not in the same situation," he said

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Newly-formed Bankia, Spain's biggest savings bank, said it would create a separate unit for holding risky assets such as repossessed land ahead of a stock market listing expected later this year.

The move echoes that of Barcelona-based La Caixa, which said in January it would hive off its real estate assets into an unlisted company before reversing its banking business into its already listed Criteria (CRIT.MC) unit. [ID:nLDE70R0AJ]

Formed from the merger of seven regional banks including heavyweight Caja Madrid, Bankia plans to go public with a net book value of 12 billion euros ($17 billion) and assets totalling 270 billion euros.

Spain's government has given savings banks -- or "cajas" -- a deadline to raise their solvency ratios to tough new minimum levels by either by getting private capital on board or accepting state funds.

Spain is under pressure to reassure markets on the solvency of its financial system, even more so after Moody's cut the credit ratings of seven banks in euro zone neighbour Portugal on Wednesday.

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James Tomkins, 61, lived in exile under an assumed identity on the Costa del Sol, Spain,fugitive murderer who killed a young father in front of his children in Essex before fleeing to the "Costa del Crime" has been jailed for life.

A fugitive murderer who killed a young father in front of his children in Essex before fleeing to the "Costa del Crime" has been jailed for life.

James Tomkins, 61, lived in exile under an assumed identity on the Costa del Sol, Spain, after the "brutal execution" of 24-year-old Rocky Dawson.

Mr Dawson was shot several times in the back as he put the children, aged two and six, in his Fiat Punto on the drive of the family's home in Hornchurch in 2006.

After several years on the run, Tomkins, who was named as one of Britain's 10 most wanted criminals in 2008, was traced to near Marbella and extradited.

He was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 33 years at Woolwich Crown Court, the Metropolitan Police said.

Mr Dawson was gunned down as a dark-blue Land Rover Freelander vehicle drove past. His children were unharmed during the incident.

Tomkins' accomplice Christopher Pearman, of Waltham Abbey, received a life sentence for the murder at the same court in 2007.

Detective Inspector Mark Lawson said: "This was a brutal execution of a totally innocent young man in what we believe to have been a case of mistaken identity.

"Despite the arrest and subsequent conviction of Christopher Pearman we knew James Tomkins was a key player in this murder.

"He sought to distance himself from the investigation by fleeing to Spain where he lived for four years. Since his extradition and return to the UK he has shown no remorse for his callous actions.

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El Corte Inglés department store in Málaga has been fined for recording people walking past its building in the street

El Corte Inglés department store in Málaga has been fined for recording people walking past its building in the street, and by nearby parked cars. Expansión newspaper says the images, by which it is easy to identify the passing people, were generally kept for seven days.

On appeal, the National Court has ratified an earlier fine issued for more than 60,000 € imposed on the company by the Spanish Data Protection Agency, considering damage had been done to those walking by. The court considered the company knew the restrictions on recording people in the street, but did nothing to stop doing so.

The case was brought before the Data Protection Agency by member of the public.

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Junta de Andalucía has been hit by a new resignation, just hours after Luis Pizarro resigned from his position as Councillor for Government and Justice in the regional government Cabinet.

Pizarro was considered as the PSOE party’s number two in the region for many years and was right hand man to Manuel Chaves during the time he was President of the Junta. Chaves is now Minister for Territorial Policy and 3rd Deputy Prime Minister in the Zapatero Cabinet.

Pizarro decided to go after the regional government decided to replace its delegate in Cádiz, Gabriel Almagro. Pizarro’s successor at the head of the government and justice department was announced on Tuesday as Francisco Menacho, and it was at a departmental meeting after Menacho had officially taken possession of his new duties that the department’s deputy councillor, José Antonio Gómez-Periñán, presented his resignation to his new boss.

Gómez-Periñán is a member of PSOE’s provincial executive in Cádiz and was appointed by Luis Pizarro in April 2009 to the position from which he has now resigned.

The crisis in the regional government, just weeks away from the municipal elections, is reported by El País as a ‘war’ between the President of the Junta de Andalucía, José Antonio Griñán, and the Cádiz Socialists.

Also on Tuesday, the judge investigating the ERE early retirement grants awarded corruptly in Andalucía meanwhile gave the Junta a period of three days to hand over all regional cabinet minutes from 2001 onwards.

Her notification came after the Andaluz government refused to do so on Monday, offering instead only those sections of the minutes they considered relevant to the case.

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Sony Music denounces the Partido Popular

It comes after the party has used a Lady Gaga song in an election video without permissionPhoto PP


Despite supporting the Ley Sinde internet copyright law, the Partido Popular finds itself being asked questions about plagiarism by Sony Music for using a Lada Gaga song for part of its election campaign without permission or payment of copyright.

The Tarragona branch of the party has removed the video from the PP website, but it remains across You Tube and in other locations.

‘Vota la PP, confía en él, Alejandro, Ale, Ale, Alejando’ are the new letters to the Gaga track, Alejandro, in support of the Mayor of Teruel, Alejandro Fernández.

El Mundo argues that in order to guarantee ‘social richness’ there should be exceptions to the author’s rights in certain circumstances, such as parody.

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The judge in Instruction Court Three in Madrid has admitted for consideration the private prosecution brought by some 5,000 people affected by the illegal air traffic controllers walk-out on December 3

The judge in Instruction Court Three in Madrid has admitted for consideration the private prosecution brought by some 5,000 people affected by the illegal air traffic controllers walk-out on December 3 and 4 2010.

The people are being represented by the Crenades & Calvo-Sotelo lawyers.

The judge has accepted that the controllers who were working at the time should be identified and questioned as indicted. She has asked for the Spanish Airport Authority AENA, to send all the documentation relating to the closure of Spanish airspace at the time, as well as that related to its reopening.

Those affected are also expected to file a claim for responsibility against AENA itself, as well as the controllers.

The total claim for costs incurred and moral damages is estimated to reach more than 10 million €.

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