Canadian online payment processor agrees to pay $9.1 million fine to avoid further prosecution.
Tuesday 10th June 2008
Canada’s ESI Entertainment Systems Incorporated, an Internet payment processor publicly traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange, has admitted criminal wrongdoing and agreed to pay over $9.1 million in fines as part of a deferred prosecution agreement with US authorities.
The Burnaby-based firm was charged by the US Department of Justice under the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 with the Government stating that ESI would avoid prosecution on a related conspiracy charge if it avoided further wrongdoing for 18 months.
ESI went public in March of 2006 and prosecutors allege that its Citadel Commerce Corporation subsidiary processed more than two billion dollars in gambling transactions for hundreds of thousands of US-based customers of online casinos between 2002 and January of last year. The British Columbia firm was charged in connection with its participation in a conspiracy to conduct illegal online gambling and operate an unlicensed money transmitting business and fined $9,114,342 in a civil forfeiture proceeding.
Canada’s ESI Entertainment Systems Incorporated, an Internet payment processor publicly traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange, has admitted criminal wrongdoing and agreed to pay over $9.1 million in fines as part of a deferred prosecution agreement with US authorities.