The US government filed charges of bank fraud, money laundering, and illegal gambling to 11 people in relation with its crackdown on online poker.

The founders of the three biggest online poke sites namely PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and Absolute Poker were included in the charge sheet revealed by a US attorney for the southern district of New York. The court also issued restraining orders against 76 bank accounts in 14 countries used by the poker firms including their payment processors.

Aside from that, Federal authorities seized five Internet domain names used by the online poker sites to host their games. A complaint was filed seeking $3 billion worth of money laundering penalties and forfeiture. The websites of these companies were stamped with the official seal of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Justice as well as the message “this domain name has been seized by the FBI.”

According to US Attorney Preet Bharara, the three online poker firms committed an illegal activity by tricking some US banks and bribing others to ensure the continuous entry of illegal gambling money. Assistant Director Janice Fedarcyk of the FBI’s New York field office said that the defendants lied to the banks about the real nature of their business.

Internet gambling has been deemed illegal in the United States since 2006 but it has remained a multi-billion-dollar industry with companies using several ways to avoid the law, such as operating in foreign countries. The indictment states that the online poker firms diverted the money received from US gamblers as payments to non-existent websites selling items such as jewelry and golf balls.

Among those who were charged and arrested was 57-year old John Campos who was the part owner of SunFirst Bank, a small private bank located in Saint George, Utah. Campos allegedly agreed to process gambling money in exchange for a $10 million investment in SunFirst and a $20,000 payment for his assistance.

Three of the 11 persons indicted are based in the United States but the other eight are overseas and US authorities are coordinating with the Interpol and foreign law enforcers to arrest them. Three of the defendants have Canadian citizenship. One of them, 64-year old Isai Scheinberg, who founded PokerStars, has a dual Israeli-Canadian citizenship and resides in the Isle of Man. The remaining defendants are American citizens but majority of them are based in Costa Rica, Ireland, and the Isle of Man.

If found guilty, the defendants can be sentenced to 5 years imprisonment for illegal Internet gambling, 20 years for money laundering, and 30 years for bank and wire fraud. Under US laws, financial institutions are prohibited from knowingly accepting illegal gambling payments through credit cards, electronic fund transfers, and checks.

The US ban on Internet gambling has been questioned as an unfair trade restriction at the World Trade Organization and some lawmakers are batting for its legalization.

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