ESI Entertainment Systems Inc., the parent company to online payment processors Citadel Commerce Corp., ESI Integrity Inc., and PlayLine Inc., has settled with the United States attorney general’s office for $9.1 million for violating portions of the Wire Act.
The Canadian company had a little more than $9.1 seized at the same time the USAO targeted e-Wallet giant Neteller for helping Americans gamble online by processing payments. These payments were processed through ESI’s company Citadel Commerce. As part of the agreement, ESI has agreed to help the USAO with further investigations. Criminal charges against the company will be waved in December 2009 if the company cooperates fully.
According to the USAO, ESI processed more than $2 billion in Internet gambling payments since it was founded in 1999. The company went public in 2006 and was charged with using the wires to transmit interstate and foreign commerce bets and wagers on behalf of persons engaged in the business of betting and wagering, conducting an illegal gambling business, conducting international monetary transactions for purposes of promoting illegal gambling, and operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business in early 2007.
About 80 percent of the payments that were processed by Citadel were done by customers located in the United States. According to ESI, its companies now support instant payment for more than 600 million bank accounts in more than 36 countries outside the U.S.
