Federal Prosecutors from Maryland have announced that they are still working on the deportation of the online gambling magnate – Calvin Ayre. Calvin Ayre is accused of operating an illegal gambling business as well as participating in money laundering activities. He is said to have managed these illegal activities through Malta-based companies.
The announcement of the case was made around a week ago in Maryland District Court, where the initial case was filed. Calvin Ayre, who is fifty-three years old, was accused together with other associates back in February, 2012.
Currently, the Canadian citizen Calvin Ayre is one of the ‘most wanted’ on the list of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement for committing the above-mentioned crimes.
An Assistant US Attorney has requested the case to be marked as ‘administratively closed’ until the deportation process is complete. Back in July the attorney shared that there was a deal accepted between the authorities and the defense attorney, but it could not be completed. According to the US attorney, Mr. Ayre is either in Canada or Antigua, and further explained that due to the long process of closing the case, an administrative closure is preferred until new actions are taken.
According to the case, Calvin Ayre and four other suspects were involved in a website called Bodog.com which transferred more than a $100 million from international accounts in Canada, Switzerland and other countries and were given to betters in Maryland. According to the Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006, money transactions made made to pay online gambling winnings are against the law.
Bodog.com had, however, found a way to go around the U.S. law, and paid U.S. players who accounted for most of the website’s player base.
According to the first claims against the website back in 2008, the transactions were carried out by using a foreign money payment operator who sent money to the U.S. players through cheque or online without stating that the transaction pays winnings from gambling.
According to the IRS investigation report, the Bodog website, which was making around $6 billion in profit annually, was using at least one money processing company from Malta.
The $100 million paid to US players were transferred between 2005 and 2012. One of the companies which transferred money was Stratham Finance, which is owned and managed by Calvin Ayre. The investigation made a big step forward when the IRS provided evidence from a person working for the UK-based MPS Processing Ltd, stating that the company processed payments for Bodog which were made by its main ‘investor’ – Statham Finance.
Eleven other companies, including the company that hosted Bodog’s servers were registered on the same address as the address of Statham Finance.
The investigation is still gathering evidence, and even though it is not finished, all illegal payments made by Bodog can be traced back to either Calvin Ayre or his associate James Philip.
