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

Neteller Layoffs and Continued DOJ Investigation

I don't think it will come as a surprise to anyone that Neteller continues their downward spiral. Gambling911's inside sources notify of further layoffs plus some interesting DOJ tidbits.

If you were playing poker a year ago, chances are you were moving your money around via Neteller, and if you were an online pokerbot, then the speed and convenience of Neteller's transfer system was great for adding a chunk of "free" bankroll every month from bonuswhoring. All this ended when the U.S. Department of Justice stormed Neteller HQ and froze all the funds. Many of you are probably still dealing with money trapped in Neteller-limbo, I'm sure.

Things aren't improving for the company, unfortunately. I never expected them to return to the online gambling e-wallet market, but I didn't think they'd completely fall apart.

Gambling911 reports that not only are layoffs still occuring within Neteller's management, but the DOJ investigators are STILL investigating the physical HQ building. I won't be expecting my limbo money anytime soon.

Read More at Gambling911.com

YouTeller Launch Delayed

"After facing legal problems with NETeller, YouTeller decided to delay the launch of their new payment processor. "It is in everyone's interest that YouTeller will not be confused with NETeller," said Seed Capital spokesman Florian Schweitzer. If Seed Capital will not be able to make the legal situation clear the company will introduce an all-new online payment system next summer."

Interesting stuff. It's comical to think that Netteller's suit is based on YouTeller benefiting from their reputation. I don't think Netteller has much goodwill left in the poker community, to say the least. The US players need all the payment processors they can get without the burned out husk of what used to be Netteller pushing out new entries into the market.

I found this quote from a YouTeller spokesman especially interesting, "We are not interested in a traditional online payment system. We have developed a service that is tailor-made to the current challenges."

Call me crazy, but I've got a hunch we've already seen the worst from the UIGEA.

Full Press Release at Newswiretoday.com