A new Assets Forfeiture and Financial Crimes task force has been implemented at the US Attorney’s Office in Baltimore Maryland which is already being used to go after online gambling operations.
Maryland U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein announced the task force in mid-August. While Rosenstein is a Bush holdover, sources close to Gambling911.com have said that the Obama Administration is supportive of Rosenstein’s efforts.
Rosenstein has stated that he has “beefed up” his office’s work on these crimes because the Justice Department has encouraged the U.S. Attorneys to “follow the money” in mortgage fraud and other financial criminal cases. Those “other financial criminal cases” we learn involve online gambling.
On Friday, Gambling911.com first broke the story that the Baltimore office had joined forces with the US Attorney’s Office out of New York, the Louisiana State Police and the US Customs Office in an effort to squash online gambling. The focus appears to be on credit card and eCheck processors that do business with gaming companies.
Agents posed as individuals looking to join the online casino, Golden Casino, and were routinely told they could not play at the casino from the jurisdiction provided. Eventually, one of the customer service representatives allowed an agent to join the casino according to documents.
As part of the investigation, which commenced last August, law enforcement agents also met with US-based customers of Golden Casino.
Christopher Costigan
Gambling911.com
