LUCK AND CRIME OR LACK OF CRIME? NETeller story

 All of us, well most of us, dream to become wealthy or dream to have a comfortable life.There are 4 ways to become rich (as far as I know). Inherit age, earning, stealing, marriage.In order to become rich by earning money one  has to be brilliant,  hardworking and Lucky. Here is the story of Brilliant people who where not so lucky  because they did not  fit into the Frame of Law of United States of America.

Mr. Lefebvre and Mr. Lawrence got very rich from Neteller, cashing out hundreds of millions of dollars worth of shares .

 It was an unlikely fortune for Mr. Lefebvre, a rock 'n' roll enthusiast who quit his career as a lawyer  in Calgary's train stations, before teaming up with Mr. Lawrence. Mr. Lawrence, who earned his MBA from the University of Western Ontario's Richard Ivey School of Business, worked as a venture capitalist at Cavendish Investing Ltd., and was also active as a Calgary property developer before moving into his Internet career.

Neteller company was founded in 1999,  based in the Isle of Man and regulated in the United Kindom The company positions itself as the "world's leading independent online payment business" and few years later  It had customers in over 160 countries that use the service to send and receive money from their banks to and from merchants. The service also was used to send money between individuals. Practicaly NETELLER  was an "e-Wallet" service that allows people to transfer money directly from their bank accounts to other parties. It's the main service many online poker players and gamblers use to transfer money in and out of their preferred sites.

Online poker players- That was the Luck and Crime Of Lawrence and Lefebvre.

I must admit that poker players was  happy to use Neteller(here is some testimonies of

online game player) :

"First of all - thank you so much for creating this site.... I've was looking for strategy for blackjack for "real" casinos and stumbled across this page. Seemed too good to be true at first, but now that I have my first results back from the strategies here, I'm a believer!....

After about a week and a half, they deposited $20 into a Neteller account for me. Perfect! $20 I didn't have before!

$200. I requested a full withdrawal of it two days ago and received it in my Neteller account this afternoon...

Total money invested: $40

Total money withdrawn: $220
Not too bad for my first go at this considering what I put in to get started with it."

So customers were happy while Lawrence and Lefebvre  were getting rich.
(Lawrence and Lefebvre each own close to 6 percent of the company's shares(Mr Lawrence 7,085,541$ and Mr Lefebvre 6,638,094$). Lawrence resigned as a non-executive director of the company in October; Lefebvre resigned from the same position in December of 2005.)

And everything  would have gone smoothly if In October, President George W. Bush had not signed into law the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, which is designed to curb online gambling by targeting banks that cooperate with online sites. ...

That was the beginning of the crime.

...In a sudden reversal of fortune Monday, Saltspring Island resident John Lefebvre, 55, was arrested by FBI agents at his Malibu home and charged with conspiring to promote illegal gambling by transferring billions of dollars of cyberspace bets placed by U.S. citizens with offshore gaming companies. He was jailed at the Metropolitan Center, the federal holding facility in downtown Los Angeles, and appeared in Los Angeles Court . Bail was set at $5 million US. At press time Tuesday, it was not clear whether he posted that bail.
NETeller co-founder Stephen Eric Lawrence, 46, formerly of Calgary, was also arrested in the U.S. Virgin Islands and similarly charged with transferring funds with the intent to promote illegal gambling. He was to appear in federal court in St. Thomas .

By  time of arrest NETeller describes itself as "the largest independent online money transfer business in the world" with more than three million customers in 160 countries, 3,500 merchants and more than $7 billion US in annual transactions. The company's shares are listed on the London Stock Exchange's AIM market.

Although Lefebvre and Lawrence do not and never have owned an online gambling site, they join a small club of men who have been arrested and charged by the Federal Government for violating various laws concerning online gambling, particularly money laundering.Executives with online gambling companies Sportingbet and BetOnSports were arrested and charged with taking bets over the Internet (among other charges) in 2006, but this is the first time people affiliated with an "e-Wallet" have been targeted. .John David Lefebvre, cofounder of NETELLER, pleaded guilty to the charges brought against him by the United States Attorney's Office of Southern New York. Cofounder Steven Lawrence did the same about two weeks ago. Lefebvre pleaded guilty to the following: using the wires to foster interstate and foreign bets, conducting an illegal gambling business, engaging in illegal financial transactions for the purpose of promoting gambling, and operating an unlicensed money transmitting business. He faces up to five years in prison, a $250,000 fine, and also will have to pay a portion of $100 million that the government seeks in restitution from Lawrence, Lefebvre, and NETELLER. Lefebvre's sentencing hearing took place Oct. 29 2007.

 

Lefebvre's guilty plea is an important step to online poker players whose money was seized after charges were made against Lawrence, Lefebvre, and NETELLER in January. NETELLER told its shareholders and current U.S. customers that it negotiated with the government to have the seized money returned. In June, the company said a plan was in place to have the funds returned, but that it would have to wait until after the case was settled with the government. It gave a July 13 target date to have the investigation settled. Once the investigation is complete, NETELLER says the funds will be returned.

But it was not the end of Netteler company .Now days company called The Neteller Group.

Company  with over 3 million customers in 160 countries and more than $ 7 billion in annual transactions, the NETELLER Group operates the largest independent online money transfer business in the world. There are 1700 on-line shops except Neteller"s electronic money. Officialy Neteller dropped any gambling activity

The Group specializes in providing innovative and instant payment services where money transfer is difficult or risky due to identity, trust, currency exchange or distance. Being independent has allowed the Group to support over 3,500 retailers and merchants in many geographies and across multiple industries.
The Group is quoted on the London Stock Exchange's AIM market, with a ticker symbol of NLR. NETELLER (UK) Limited is authorized by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) to operate as a regulated e-money issuer.

The story of  Nestteler not finished :There are payment to the poker players need to be done and there is still a  questions in the press about founders of  the Company - Were They Doing Anything Illegal?
When a gaming site goes public, it routinely states that online gambling is or may be illegal in the U.S. The fact is that the companies don't know this to be true, but their attorneys strongly advise them to include such overstatements to protect everyone involved.

In the NETELLER situation, Stephen Lawrence and John Lefebvre helped take the company public in the UK in 2004. NETELLER is authorized and regulated by the Financial Services Authority in the United Kingdom as an electronic money institution. NETELLER stock is publicly traded on the London AIM Stock Exchange.
U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia has come up with a creative argument that will eventually fail. He says that when Lawrence and Lefebvre took the company public, they "conceded that they were risking prosecution by the government of the United States under existing or future federal laws."
They never conceded that Internet gambling was illegal in the U.S. Rather, they put into the prospectus what their lawyers advised them to disclose to potential stockholders.
That still begs the question. Let's say I "concede" that it is illegal to walk on the sidewalk singing and then I do so. Have I committed a crime? Of course not, because there must be a crime on the books to have violated. This brings us back to the same old question of what law has been broken.

Marina, Reporter of Ecommerce Journal