legal issues

It was declared that Banco Santander, a Spanish bank that was one of the institutions that lost the greatest amount of money due to the Bernard Madoff swindle, has agreed to take conditions with the aim of avoiding a legal brawl.

In line with the US bankruptcy law, the bank has to pay $235 million to resolve potential legal claims over withdrawals a subsidiary made from its investments with Madoff in the 90 days before the fraud collapsed.

It has been announced that Craigslist, online classified site will be replacing its "erotic services" ads with a new "adult services" category, as the result of it being pressured by state authorities after the murder of a masseuse who advertised her services on the site.

Federal regulators have won a court order freezing the assets of financier Danny Pang’s two investment companies, whom they accuse of defrauding investors of hundreds of millions of dollars.

Pang, a Taiwanese immigrant, owns Private Equity Management Group Inc. and Private Equity Management Group LLC, based in Irvine, Calif.

It has been announced that the German Cabinet has approved a law aimed at strengthening the existing ban on child sex abuse images.

According to the law, ISPs will be required to display a 'Stop' sign when a user tries to access websites including the prohibited content. The list of those websites will be prepared by the police and transferred to ISPs. 

It has been announced that a Harvard Study exposed focus on the Family's (Citizen Link) claim that gambling online is more addictive than land based casino gambling. 

The US 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals has notified lawyers of the Interactive Media & Gaming Association (iMEGA) and the US Department of Justice that the Court is ready to consider the case of iMEGA’s challenge to the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (UIGEA).

The U.S. Justice Department has started investigating approximately 100 cases of wealthy American clients of the Swiss bank, UBS AG, reported New York Times, citing a person familiar with the matter.

The paper has also revealed that there were several accounts under scrutiny that had over $100 million in assets. The largest holding had over $150 million, added the paper.

Ehud Tenenbaum, an Israeli hacker who was arrested in Canada last year on the account of the theft of around $1.5 million, is now being suspected of breaking into the systems of four US institutions, which might have resulted in the loss of at least $10 million.

The Interactive Gambling Act of 2001 makes it an offence to provide, or advertise certain interactive gambling services including online poker. However, thousands of Australians are still participating in online poker games. ACMA which is responsible for investigating complaints under the Act in relation to prohibited Internet gambling content has announced it would filter poker URLs. 

Representatives of the US federal government were found to be restraining information necessary for a fair and responsible court decision regarding the UIGEA issue. The act was sued by Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association (iMEGA) for its vagueness. Department of Justice attorney would not give consent for iMEGA to update its briefs by including difficulties being caused at state lotteries by the online gambling ban.