The assistance awarded
In assistance to the federal investigation of an alleged $40 million money laundering scheme that involved online poker, the South Carolina's Greenville county sheriff deputies together with Secret Service and US Attorney Office officials interviewed a number of online gamblers, it was announced this week.
Apparently, the scheme has been cracked, and it involved two offshore shell companies titled Prime Investment Ltd. and Trading 24/7 Ltd, which laundered $40 million in under a year for poker enterprises.
According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Watkins, "We're looking at this from a global picture. It's about the integrity of our financial system. Individuals laundering money, sending much of that money into the United States, and hiding the source of it. Now, we've got their money."
In regard to the over $2 million seized in criminal assets in the state, more than $700,000 of which was awarded to the Greenville County Sheriff's Office, Watkins said: "We determined, thanks to their [Sheriff's office] efforts, that this was gambling money and we could not find any legitimate source of business for these companies."
In addition, it has been specified by U.S. Attorney Bill Nettles that the point of the investigation is not to prosecute online poker players, and that it goes further than online gambling - it's about the security of US banks and US money.
"Using relationships with foreign banks, these two companies were engaging in dubious business activities," Nettles said. "When you certify that something is true, whether it has to do with your mortgage or your loan or where the money is coming from, if you lie about it, that's a federal offense."
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