Crazy times these are.  My main focus for the past couple weeks has been trying to get to the bottom of this mystery surrounding the “Blue Monday” seizures.  Unfortunately, it seems like every time I get on a roll there is a diaper to be changed, a doctor’s appointment to go to, or my wife having surgery to repair her wrist.  If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my 30 years on this earth is that nothing is ever easy or smooth.

The more I dig into this mess, the more ridiculous things get.

On Friday I called a myriad of people and left messages trying to get more information about what is going on with our UseMyWallet/QuickTender funds.  There have been so many different stories and rumors it’s been hard to distinguish fact from fiction.  I think the picture is getting more clear.

One of the people I called and left a message with was Mr. Jim Eastman of the United States Secret Service out of the Fort Myers office.  Mr. Eastman was kind enough to return my call today and I had a conversation with him that greatly clarified some of the recent rumblings about the Secret Service involvement in this.  I appreciate Mr. Eastman’s time and willingness to discuss these things with me.  For clarity I’m going to bullet point the primary topics we talked about:

• -The US Secret Service and Maryland ICE/HSI had 2 separate investigations going simultaneously.
• -The 2 different government agencies were not sharing information and were not aware of each other’s investigation.***
• -Both investigations zeroed in on money controlled at one point by Chargestream LTD (the accounts in Holland/Netherlands)
• -The Secret Service only dealt with money as it was going through the correspondent bank in NYC.  Their investigation had nothing to do with seizing overseas bank accounts, only money that was in transit.
• -When asked if he had an opinion about whether or not we could get our money from a US Government seized bank account, Mr. Eastman’s opinion was they will not give it back to the players.
• -Mr. Eastman said he is not a lawyer, but it is his understanding that their efforts are based on the 2006 UIGEA legislation.
• -It was Mr. Eastman’s understanding that if we had money that was with Chargestream (UMW/QT) that was not in transit, then it was part of the Maryland ICE/HSI investigation and if they have seized those accounts, our money is likely there.

***I’m told by another confidential source the lack of information sharing is also true about the “Blue Monday” Maryland efforts vs. the “Black Friday” SDNY efforts.  Apparently “Blue Monday” was going to make a much bigger splash but the SDNY office beat them to the punch a bit and information throughout the investigations were not shared between agencies.

So here are a couple things you should take note of.  First, if you had money in transit to the United States from your quicktender.com account, there’s a chance that the Secret Service has your money locked up.  Second, for those of us who have money just sitting in our accounts on quicktender.com (ie, NOT being wired to our personal bank accounts), the Secret Service has no access or control over that money.

After learning this, I felt more confident about what I had originally thought after reading the Linwood Affidavit I linked to several entries ago, which is that the Maryland Department of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) has our money seized in these bank accounts in the Netherlands.  Unfortunately, as I would find out minutes later, it’s not that simple.

I called up Maryland US Attorney Richard Kay.  I’m told from my sources that Richard Kay is an extremely intelligent guy who gets things done, and he is really behind “Blue Monday,” despite Special Agent Lisa Ward’s name on the Affidavit.  I had been calling Mr. Kay for about a week now, trying to reach him and I finally go through today.

I introduced myself to Mr. Kay and said I had recently talked to Mr. Jim Eastman of the US Secret Service about their investigation and I was trying to piece this puzzle together.  I explained that based on the investigation that I’ve done, I think that the Maryland ICE/HSI has control over some bank accounts with poker player funds in them, including my $26,000.  I explained that I have 2 bank wire receipts (one from April, one from May) showing withdraws from account 0243058780 in the Netherlands that the Linwood Affidavit says was seized.

At this point, US Attorney Kay corrected me and said these accounts have not yet been seized, only that the paperwork for seizure warrants have been submitted and they have no results yet on the status of that paperwork.  I was stunned.  I asked further questions and tried to take notes, but as best as I understand it (I might have some details slightly wrong here) this is how it works:

1. An investigation is conducted and evidence being gathered

2. Paperwork gets filed to the State Department to check and see what type of foreign treaties exist with the country in question

3. Assuming the proper treaties, the paperwork is then translated and filed with the foreign country (in this case, Netherlands) asking for a Netherlands court to honor those treaties

4. Assuming treaties are honored, a petition is filed and the courts seize the bank accounts.

Mr. Kay explained that this entire process takes 4-6 months to complete.  Until the process is complete, the accounts are not actually locked and seized, so Chargestream LTD has access to these accounts.  You can guess what happens next.  I was then told “the chance of any money being left in those accounts by the time we get to them is so close to zero I’d call it zero”

Mr. Kay also explained that he’s gone through this process many times before and that’s how it works out…but they still do it anyway.  My natural reaction was to want to ask why the heck they do this then, but I bit my tongue.

Mr. Kay mentioned that 1 week before their warrants were filed, the Secret Service snagged some of the money coming into the country via those banks in NYC.

Given that it was becoming more clear that his office doesn’t have the money since the accounts aren’t actually locked up yet, I explained to him that I had done some research on UMW/QT/Chargestream and I had found two primary shareholders: John Briggs and Paul Templeman.  Mr Kay was familiar with Briggs but didn’t give any specific details on him.  I explained that we tracked down Templeman’s house in the UK and I had Briggs email and skype addresses but I couldn’t get a hold of either of them.  I asked if he or his office could or would help us in any way if we could track these guys down, and he said if we could find them then let him know and he would see what sort of extradition options were in place.

In general, Mr. Kay seemed plenty professional and reasonable, but not very compassionate.  He mentioned at least once about online gambling being illegal, but I had kept him so long already I didn’t want to try to get into a legal debate with a US Attorney, especially given I’m just a layman myself, however as best as I understand the Safe Port Act of 2006 (and subsequently the UIGEA) this states:

‘‘§ 5363. Prohibition on acceptance of any financial

instrument for unlawful Internet gambling

‘‘No person engaged in the business of betting or wagering

may knowingly accept, in connection with the participation of

another person in unlawful Internet gambling—

‘‘(1) credit, or the proceeds of credit, extended to or on

behalf of such other person (including credit extended through

the use of a credit card);

‘‘(2) an electronic fund transfer, or funds transmitted by

or through a money transmitting business, or the proceeds

of an electronic fund transfer or money transmitting service,

from or on behalf of such other person;

‘‘(3) any check, draft, or similar instrument which is drawn

by or on behalf of such other person and is drawn on or

payable at or through any financial institution; or

‘‘(4) the proceeds of any other form of financial transaction,

as the Secretary and the Board of Governors of the Federal

Reserve System may jointly prescribe by regulation, which

involves a financial institution as a payor or financial intermediary on behalf of or for the benefit of such other person

which as I understand it, says that it’s illegal for “person engaged in the business of betting or wagering” (ex. poker site) cannot accept deposits from players.  It does not prohibit people from getting their money from poker sites.

Additionally, if you look at the American Bankers Association website it lists the UIGEA compliance regulations where it specifically states:

The final rule requires a strengthened screening process at the time of account opening to deny commercial entities that may be acting as Internet casinos access to the payments system. It also requires that policies and procedures be implemented to prevent all debit and credit card payments to Internet casinos. It does not require that checks, ACH payments, or wire transactions related to Internet gambling be monitored or blocked.

Additionally, the UIGEA does not define what illegal gambling is.  It relies on other legislation (such as state or other federal laws) to define illegal gambling.  Some states, such as Washington state, have done this.  There is no other federal law that I am aware of except the Wire Act, however the U.S. Fith Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the Wire Act only applies to sports betting, however the Department of Justice apparently disagrees.

Yet still, Mr. Eastman directly and Mr. Kay indirectly referenced online poker being illegal (UIGEA) and at least the Secret Service thinks it’s a good idea to snag bank wires going to players.

As for the next steps, I think it’s time to find out where the hell Briggs and Templeman are and find out where our money is.

I’ll be on the QuadJacks radio program tonight talking about this stuff as well.