The Gold Blog

In a post 9/11 world, “due diligence” is constantly on the forefront—or at least we are expected to believe that. Although banks these days are preaching “due diligence,” it appears that at least one bank does not practice what it preaches. Monterey County Bank, based in Monterey California, http://www.montereycountybank.com that supports several card platforms for businesses providing prepaid debit card products for use on the internet and at atms, has missed the boat on “due diligence,” at the expense of those who entrusted it.

One of those businesses that it sponsors, Digital World Global Card, Inc., http://www.digitalworldcard.com , based out of New York, New York, is owned in full by sole shareholder Joseph Simon LaCroix, aka Joseph Simon, a convicted felon in the province of Ontario, Canada, according to Rowena McDougall, Senior Manager, Public Affairs, for the Financial Services Commission of Ontario (FSCO) .

On October 3, 2005 Joseph LaCroix, the sole officer and director of Digital World Financial, pleaded guilty to the charge of conducting the business of a loan and trust corporation without being registered in the province of Ontario. LaCroix was fined $50,000 and placed on probation for two years. As a condition of the probation LaCroix must pay approximately $2.2 million in restitution to depositors. Good luck on collecting that!

LaCroix also pleaded guilty to carrying on the business of insurance in Ontario without a licence and was fined $5,000. Seems Canada garners favor with criminals, as its criminal penalties certainly don’t seem to discourage crime.

For more on LaCroix’s convictions, see the following:

http://www.claimsurvey.com/english/pubs/news/2005/20051007-digitalworld.asp

http://www.fsco.gov.on.ca/english/pubs/news/2005/20051007-digitalworld.asp

http://www.ontarioinsurance.com/english/licensing/ceasedesistorders/cdo-digitalworld.asp

http://www.ontarioinsurance.com/english/pubs/bulletins/mebulletins/2006/g-03_06.asp

http://www.sfsc.gov.sk.ca/ssc/files/enforcementorders/2002_enf/temporary/digitalworldfinancialinc(temp)feb27-02.pdf

http://www.sfsc.gov.sk.ca/ssc/files/enforcementorders/2002_enf/extending/digitalworldfinancialinc(ext)mar13-02.pdf

http://www.fsco.gov.on.ca/English/licensing/ceasedesistorders/cdo-digitalworld.asp

Now, less than three years later, LaCroix’s Digital World Global Card, Inc. was shut down on April 1, 2008, by Monterey County Bank after LaCroix has allegedly misappropriated the funds of its many cardholders. Those cardholders had put their trust in Digital World Card, Inc. as well as Monterey County Bank—after all, if you can’t trust a bank, who can you trust? To add insult to injury, LaCroix had his staff to tell cardholders that their accounts were being audited by the bank, implying that they had somehow done something wrong. His staff has since become non-existant. Calls to the company (866) 878-8020 go directly to voice mail, and are not returned. Calls to LaCroix’s cell phone (347) 853-4746 went unanswered.

It should be noted that apparently all of LaCroix’s resellers were left out in the cold. It should also be noted that the ONLY cards affected are those that have the name Digital World Global Card at the top of the card – No others. Funds were sent to Digital World Card, Inc. for the benefit of cardholders, and instead, went to the benefit of LaCroix. In reported cases, LaCroix even emptied funds already on cardholders cards!

LaCroix’s site, Digital World Card, Inc., still maintains its website at http://www.digitalworldcard.com . Do Not Order From This Site! Do not become one of his victims! If the bank backing your prepaid debit card is Monterey County Bank, do your OWN due diligence!

Please remember that Monterey County Bank merely shut his program down on April 1, 2008. They offered absolutely NO COMPENSATION for their cardholders whatsoever. Do you think they would feel the same if you owed them money?

Remember, Buyer Beware!

On a darker note, we now learn that the FBI has actually frozen the funds of all US clients, which were still ‘on account’ at NETeller the online e-wallet. It was earlier believed that the digital money would be refunded to US players and now they are calling it evidence and the cash is on ice.

Strangely enough, the authorities are attempting to link NETeller’s online payment processing of gambling money to terrorist funding. Despite the fact that NETeller in the UK has public shareholders, pays dividends and offers 100% audited financial statements, the FBI is pursuing an argument that e-wallet funds are being used to finance terrorist.

Additionally, despite the transparent nature of all these UK payment companies, subpoenas have been issued to the following Wall Street investment banks HSBC, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank and Dresdner Kleinwort. All of these fine companies participated in underwriting public offerings for some of the more popular online gambling webs. They all have offices in London and now they all have records being subpoenaed.

This is simply bizarre. Its a great political move because now you have all the other digital currency operators thinking…Am I next?

One notable online gaming expert is quoted as saying:

“(Terrorism is) a smokescreen thrown up by the right-wing Christian lunatics in the government who want to control every facet of human behavior from birth to death. As far as I know, there isn’t a scintilla of evidence there’s any link between online sites and terrorist groups.” *lvbusinesspress.com

Wow, talk about chasing a wild goose! I have not seen anything like this since Roy Cohn and Joe McCarthy crusaded during 1950’s to stop the ‘Red Threat’. Should we start calling this the ‘Poker Threat’ of 2007?

Look closely, the US has gone from Rep. Bob Goodlatte’s (VA) bill, H.R. 4411, which originally got support from the Christian Coalition in an attempt to ban all Internet gambling, up to the present day which is, David Litterick — the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York attempting to connect the dots between online poker money and Osama Bin Laden style funding support. I just don’t see it. The original anti gambling bill was about stopping kids’ access to online gaming. How did they arrive at this new prosecutorial frontier?

Mr. Litterick is one of the finest legal minds in the US and in the past has prosecuted terrorists involved in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania and now holds a top position at the Department of Homeland Security.

The significance of Mr. Litterick’s appearance here is quite a shift in politics since August of last year when Rep. Goodlatte had to burn the midnight oil to gain support for his anti gambling bill. With this kind of persecution ahead of them, I don’t think the NETeller execs have a snowballs chance in hell of surviving the case.

This should be a big warning for the gold backed digital currency e-dinar. Formerly operated by the e-gold think tank this electronic money is based on the Islamic Dinar. Operated from Malaysia and Dubai Internet City (a great headquarter for any online business), the primary function of the e-dinar system is to render payments, in gold (e-dinar) and silver (e-dirham), from one customer account to another.

If they are trying to paint ‘poker’ money as terrorist financing, I can’t imagine what they will say about e-dinar. Of course e-dinar is not yet processing 7 billion + each year. Although its a fine digital gold currency, I don’t think it is quite that popular!

This is IMHO a very dark time for the US. Now at the dawn of a new age of ‘electronic money’, short sighted US regulators are taking one step forward and three steps back.

Digitalmoneyworld.com

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Wow, the newest entry to the Internet world of online payments, Alipay, is coming on strong…massive growth in just a short time.

Alibaba’s online payment service Alipay announced key metrics for 2006, claiming that it was the year online payments reached critical mass in China. Alipay announced that as of December 31, 2006, the number of registered AliPay users surpassed 33 million. Alipay’s daily transaction volume reached US$12.8 million (RMB100 million), and the number of daily transactions using Alipay reached 460,000.

Jonathan Lu, President of Alipay, said, “Alibaba’s ecommerce community is built on trust and it is also an essential part of our online payment platform. Alipay’s escrow based system has solved the problem of trust for Chinese ecommerce users and is the safest way to trade online in China.”

In 2006, Alipay further extended its reach to merchants outside of the Alibaba and Taobao marketplaces, with more than 300,000 external merchants using Alipay as their preferred online payment platform, including leading local brands Lenovo, CCTV, Aigo, and New Oriental.

Source: Ina Steiner AuctionBytes.com February 01, 2007

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U.S. arrests founders of Internet-gambling payments company Neteller

New York, Jan. 16, 2007–MICHAEL J. GARCIA, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and MARK J. MERSHON, the Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (”FBI”), announced today that STEPHEN ERIC LAWRENCE and JOHN DAVID LEFEBVRE were arrested yesterday in connection with the creation and operation of an internet payment services company that facilitated the transfer of billions of dollars of illegal gambling proceeds from United States citizens to the owners of various internet gambling companies located overseas.

According to the two criminal Complaints unsealed yesterday: Neteller PLC (”Neteller”), formerly known as Neteller, Inc., is an internet payment services company that was founded by LAWRENCE and LEFEBVRE in 1999. Neteller is based in the Isle of Man and is publicly traded in the United Kingdom. Neteller began processing internet gambling transactions in approximately July 2000. Internet payment services companies, like Neteller, allow gambling companies to transfer money collected from United States customers to bank accounts outside the United States. According to Neteller’s 2005 annual report, LAWRENCE and LEFEBVRE, through Neteller, provided payment services to more than 80% of worldwide gaming merchants.

Since founding Neteller, LAWRENCE and LEFEBVRE have held numerous senior management positions at the company. For instance, LAWRENCE served as Chief Executive Officer of Neteller until December 2002; as executive director of Neteller from 2001 to August 31, 2003; and as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Neteller until May 11, 2006. LAWRENCE left the Board of Directors on October 13, 2006. LEFEBVRE served as President of Neteller from 2000 to 2002; and was a member of the Board of Directors until approximately December 2005.

Furthermore, LAWRENCE and LEFEBVRE have both held significant ownership interests in Neteller. As of December 31, 2004, LAWRENCE was the largest shareholder of Neteller, owning 21.94% of the outstanding shares of Neteller PLC. As of the same date, LEFEBVRE was the second-largest shareholder of Neteller PLC, owning 13.44% of the outstanding shares of the company. At the time that the defendants took Neteller public, the company acknowledged in its offering documents that United States law prohibited persons from promoting certain forms of gambling, including internet gambling, and transmitting funds that are known to have been derived from criminal activity or are intended to promote criminal activity. The company’s directors, including LAWRENCE and LEFEBVRE, also conceded that they were risking prosecution by the government of the United States under existing or future federal laws. Read the rest of this entry »

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