DOJ Siezes More of Our Money: Citadel Commerce

More bad news.
Personally, I've never used Citadel Commerce, but they've fallen victim to another DOJ cash grab. You may know them better as myCitadel Wallet.

Citadel Commerce, a Canadian based company, gave a press release in late April that they had money "held up" by one of their U.S. based processors. Now, they confirm that the DOJ has seized over $9,000,000.

This is a company that stopped dealing with any U.S. customers at the same time that the Neteller legal problems began and yet they are still a target. They did more to comply with the DOJ's wishes than the e-wallets that continue to operate to this day, and yet...they did not escape the US Government's wrath. I hope nobody has any money sitting in ANY e-wallet. At this point, we have to assume that any of them can shutdown without any warning what so ever.

You did read your new Epassporte Terms of Service, right? Did you catch the changes where you now agree that Epassporte can confiscate your entire account if you fund it from an "illegal" source? Sounds to me that Epassporte doesn't want to deal with the headache of returning seized money to players. Easier for them to keep it all, eh?

Thank you, Big Brother. I feel safer already.

Firepay Assets Siezed by U.S. DOJ

Shares of Optimal Group Inc. (parent company of the Firepay e-wallet service) fell sharply Monday after the Montreal-based company had nearly $20,000,000 frozen by the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Southern District of New York.

$4.2 million has been siezed directly from the Firepay reserve accounts, with another $15 million siezed from Optimal Group's money market accounts.

While this won't be as disastrous as the Neteller account siezures, this is bound to catch some online poker players off guard. Neteller, E-gold, and now Firepay...Epassporte and the other e-wallets currently in operation can't be far behind.

Full details at Forbes.com

Poker Stars Cashout by Check Increased to $10,000

In this post UIGEA world, any news of relaxed banking is good news! According to reports in the Two Plus Two Forums, Poker Stars has doubled their maximum cashout by check.

As quoted on the Two Plus Two forums:

"Hello xxx,

Thank you for emailing us.

The minimum you can request on any one cheque is $25 and the
maximum is $10,000. If you wish to cashout more than this, you will
need to use an alternate cashout method. Please contact
security@pokerstars.com for more information about what options are
available to you for cashouts of larger amounts.

If you have anymore questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to
contact us.


Regards,

Jeffrey
PokerStars Support Team "


Of course be aware that a $10k deposit is likely to require a little more paperwork at the bank. Pay your taxes and you have nothing to worry about. I've been on the bad end of the IRS and it isn't pretty.