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Written by Pino | Monday, May 9th, 2011
Costa Rican Judicial Investigation Police raided the corporate offices of Absolute Poker in San Jose in efforts to serve three of the 11 indictments filed against online poker site founders, Absolute Poker, PokerStars, and Full Tilt Poker. These specific raids were specifically targeted at finding Olman Rimola, Scott Tom, and another unnamed person on the wanted list associated with the Black Friday shake down of online poker on April 15th by the FBI.
The Tico Times reported that the police raided the residence of Tom in Escazu, but he was not to be found. Him and the whereabouts of his half brother Brent Beckley are unknown.
Raids were also reportedly conducted at the offices of Innovative Data Solutions. The company is also owned by Rimola and housed the Absolute Poker operations. Also raided were the company’s headquarters in Costa Rica, the headquarters of PokerStars in Santa Ana, and the residence of Rimola’s mother in Escazu. While no suspects were obtained, they did confiscate other evidence along the way.
Apprehending the suspects has been the most challenging task since the Black Friday indictments were handed down. As of now, only 4 of the 11 suspects have been brought in. It is assumed that the remaining 7 had better and quicker escape routes once the news of the indictments was leaked to the press. News does travel fast via the Internet, especially in a streamlined genre like online poker where are there are constant updates of thousands of news blogs that all pretty much report on the same things, not to mention the forums, where news also spreads like wild fires.
The 11 suspects are all being charged with money laundering, bank fraud, illegal gambling, and conspiracy to violate the laws of the UIGEA which prevent banks in the US from processing transactions between online gamblers and online gambling websites.
Another casualty of this whole mess was the fact that when the three online poker sites were seized by the FBI, they were also forced to shut down their businesses to US players. While all sites still continue to operate in other countries, Absolute Poker looks like it won’t survive the fiasco, as they’ve laid off 300 employees already and have mentioned bankruptcy to their shareholders.
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Written by Pino · Filed Under news · |
