Leash Tightening Around Bodog?

Informer
Leash Tightening Around Bodog?
William P. Barrett, 02.19.09, 11:47 AM ET

Bodog Poker

A federal judge has ordered the forfeiture of nearly $10 million of bank account money linked to Bodog, the once-dominant but illegal under U.S. law Internet gambling site, amid indications authorities are making headway in building a criminal case.

U.S. District Judge Catherine C. Blake in Baltimore signed an order earlier this month allowing the federal government to keep $9.67 million of the $9.87 million it seized from Nevada bank accounts last July. The order said the other $200,000 would be returned to Edward Courdy, whose ZipPayments credit card processing company owned the bank accounts.

What makes this unusual is that Courdy and another man, Michael Garone, still face federal criminal money-laundering charges brought in September. These charges were started not by a formal grand jury indictment but by the simple filing of papers by the same prosecutors seeking the forfeiture. This is often an indication of an impending plea bargain, since felony charges normally cannot be pursued without an indictment.

Moreover, Blake's order contains a secret schedule of when that $200,000 is to be returned. In addition, the feds have made no apparent move to force Courdy or Garone to appear in court and plead or post bail, which hints that they might be cooperating with authorities.

Courdy's lawyer, Stanley I. Greenberg of Los Angeles, declined detailed comment, but told Forbes the $200,000 was being returned because "it couldn't be traced to illegal activities."

Garone has no lawyer of record in the case and could not be located.

Baltimore federal prosecutors routinely flood the news media with press releases about their activities--nearly five dozen statements so far this calendar year alone, many concerning far less significant cases. But in this matter they have been mum. A spokesman did not return a call seeking comment.

The forfeiture order was the second big one involving proceeds attributed to Bodog. The first, involving some $14.2 million seized in early 2008 from accounts in banks in the southeastern U.S., was finalized last year.

Federal filings in the two forfeiture cases call the proceeds Bodog money and make clear that the organization, founded by Canadian tycoon Calvin Ayre and now based in the Caribbean nation of Antigua and Barbuda, is under criminal investigation. Despite published speculation in Canada that he already faces a secret indictment, Ayre has denied he's on the lam. However, he has disappeared from public view and is believed to be in places that lack extradition treaties with the U.S.

A Forbes cover story about Ayre in 2006, when he qualified for the Forbes list of the world's billionaires, was titled "Catch Me If You Can." Legislation President Bush signed later that year strengthening online gambling prohibitions shredded Bodog's giant $6 billion-a-year operation and Ayre's fortune.

Bodog is now officially run from the Kahnawake Reserve Indian reservation in Quebec, Canada by the Morris Mohawk Gaming Group under what it describes on Web sites as a licensing agreement. In a statement to Forbes, Chief Executive Alwyn Morris again disputed the U.S. government's assertion that the funds were connected with Bodog. "Not related to us," he said, noting that his group didn't file a formal claim for the money that was seized.

But Morris added that "what's been lost in the coverage" is that if the proceeds came from non-U.S. gaming operations, the seized funds "would be U.S. citizens' money en route to them."

From time to time, other wagering-news Web sites have posted complaints by winning gamblers about slow payments from Bodog.

Federal authorities aren't the only ones after Bodog. Before the last forfeiture was finalized, Las Vegas software maker 1st Technology filed a claim seeking to collect on a $46 million judgment it won against Bodog in a suit alleging that Bodog had infringed on its intellectual property. But 1st Technology withdrew its claim for unstated reasons after, it said, consulting with prosecutors. A 1st Technology lawyer did not return a call seeking comment.

Despite the declining dominance of Bodog, thousands of online gambling sites operate worldwide. There have been calls in Congress for legalization of online gambling as a way to improve regulation of it and generate tax revenue. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass, who has introduced such legislation, says the ban-- which dates back to organized-crime-fighting efforts in the 1960s--is an infringement of individual freedoms.

But legislative efforts to weaken the prohibition face strong opposition from religious and family value interests, and even from some traditional casino operators who presumably would rather not have more competition.

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