Online Gambling: NETeller Co-Founders to Fight Charges

Two co-founders of third party money transfer system, John Lefebvre and Stephen Lawrence, vow to fight the US Justice Department criminal charges filed against them, according to the Financial Times.

Lefebvre's lawyer, Vincent Marella, told the Financial Times of London: "He's going to be contesting everything we know about the charges right now," said Vincent Marella, his attorney, on Wednesday.

Stephen Lawrence, the other founder of the London-listed online money transfer company who is charged alongside Mr Lefebvre, last week confirmed that he would also contest the allegations.

The judge ruled that his travel should be restricted to the central district of Los Angeles and the southern and eastern districts of New York, where the charges against him are filed.

His lawyer described the circumstances of his arrest as a surprise and said the US authorities were trying to send a message with the recent spate of arrests in the online gambling industry. "I think they want to stress the point that they are serious about enforcing gaming laws."

Some lawyers have questioned whether the US Justice Department can be successful in pursuing those companies not based in America.

Mr Marella questions the validity of the charges. "I don't know why the [US authorities] are bothering with this now, or why at all. It's not clear that this is a liable area of law enforcement."

Gambling911.com this past week pointed out the noteworthy credentials of Lawrence's representing law firm, Wilmer Cutler. 

Wilmer Cutler's presence in Washington DC is huge.  Their lawyers have been very active in representing financial institutions in federal and state courts with great success.  They've counseled a major international bank on its global anti-money laundering compliance regime and helping another major financial institution respond to and defend against a U.S. government request for confidential documents located abroad in the past according to the firm's impressive resume."

Lefebrve has also hired the big guns, as pointed out by Clevfan from MajorWager.com

"Among his numerous notable cases, Vince (Marella) tried the largest federal tax case in the District of Hawaii, and represented an international corporation and its chief executive officer in the largest federal criminal tax case in the nation. In addition, Vince has successfully represented chief executive officers, general counsel, chief financial officers and employees of major corporations in cases involving allegations of securities fraud, antitrust, health care fraud, customs fraud, embargo violations, as well as tax, mail and wire fraud."

NETeller serves as a third party money transfer company similar to PayPal but focused almost exclusively on the internet gambling community.  Much of its business transpires within the United States, though the company does have a respectable international customer base. 

Lefebrve and Lawrence each face a maximum sentence of 20 years if convicted. 

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Christopher Costigan, Gambling911.com

Originally published January 25, 2007 11:14 am ET