US prosecutors charged 27 people on Wednesday after breaking up what they described as a criminal international Internet gambling operation that had taken billions of dollars in wagers.
The network, which operated several gambling Web sites including Playwithal.com, was alleged to be based in New York with satellites in the Caribbean and Central America and to have taken more than US$3.3 billion in wagers since July 2004 on a variety of sporting events.
Police and agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested suspects in an operation stretching from Las Vegas to New York and seized hundreds of millions of dollars in property and assets.
"Internet gambling is a multibillion dollar worldwide industry that for too long has operated with impunity," New York District Attorney Richard Brown said in a statement.
He said it was the first time Internet gambling charges had been brought in the US since President George W. Bush signed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act into law last month.
He described the alleged ring as "a tightly-knit and an incredibly lucrative -- and illegal -- global gambling operation."
Charges were filed against a Costa Rica-based Internet company and suspects arrested in Las Vegas, Florida, New Jersey and New York.
The proceeds from the operation were allegedly laundered through casinos, shell corporations and bank accounts in locations around the globe, including Central America, the Caribbean, Switzerland and Hong Kong.
"So massive was the enterprise that only with the assistance of federal law enforcement, police authorities in sister states and other nations have we been able to bring these defendants to justice," New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.
Police involved in the case described the network as the largest illegal gambling operation they had ever encountered.
Hundreds of millions of dollars in assets, including four Manhattan apartments, millions of dollars in cash, tens of thousands of dollars worth of casino chips and a rare art collection were seized in the operation.
Those charged could face up to 25 years in prison if convicted on the top charge of enterprise corruption.
Malaysia yesterday installed a motorcycle-riding billionaire sultan as its new king in lavish ceremonies for a post seen as a ballast in times of political crises. The coronation ceremony for Malaysia’s King Sultan Ibrahim, 65, at the National Palace in Kuala Lumpur followed his oath-taking in January as the country’s 17th monarch. Malaysia is a constitutional monarchy, with a unique arrangement that sees the throne change hands every five years between the rulers of nine Malaysian states headed by centuries-old Islamic royalty. While chiefly ceremonial, the position of king has in the past few years played an increasingly important role. Royal intervention was
X-37B COMPARISON: China’s spaceplane is most likely testing technology, much like US’ vehicle, said Victoria Samson, an official at the Secure World Foundation China’s shadowy, uncrewed reusable spacecraft, which launches atop a rocket booster and lands at a secretive military airfield, is most likely testing technology, but could also be used for manipulating or retrieving satellites, experts said. The spacecraft, on its third mission, was last month observed releasing an object, moving several kilometers away and then maneuvering back to within a few hundred meters of it. “It’s obvious that it has a military application, including, for example, closely inspecting objects of the enemy or disabling them, but it also has non-military applications,” said Marco Langbroek, a lecturer in optical space situational awareness at Delft
The Philippine Air Force must ramp up pilot training if it is to buy 20 or more multirole fighter jets as it modernizes and expands joint operations with its navy, a commander said yesterday. A day earlier US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said that the US “will do what is necessary” to see that the Philippines is able to resupply a ship on the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) that Manila uses to reinforce its claims to the atoll. Sullivan said the US would prefer that the Philippines conducts the resupplies of the small crew on the warship Sierra Madre,
AIRLINES RECOVERING: Two-thirds of the flights canceled on Saturday due to the faulty CrowdStrike update that hit 8.5 million devices worldwide occurred in the US As the world continues to recover from massive business and travel disruptions caused by a faulty software update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, malicious actors are trying to exploit the situation for their own gain. Government cybersecurity agencies across the globe and CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz are warning businesses and individuals around the world about new phishing schemes that involve malicious actors posing as CrowdStrike employees or other tech specialists offering to assist those recovering from the outage. “We know that adversaries and bad actors will try to exploit events like this,” Kurtz said in a statement. “I encourage everyone to remain vigilant