
Josh Baazov, David Baazov’s elusive older brother, who’s additionally a suspect in the AMF case against.
AMF, the Canadian financial regulator, yesterday executed search warrants against 13 new people suspected of alleged involvement in securities fraudulence concerning Amaya stock, dating as far back as 2011, well before the company purchased PokerStars parent Oldford Group.
Among those is CEO David Baazov’s older brother, Ofer ‘Josh’ Baazov.
Before we’d had time and energy to even fully digest the headlines that David Baazov was facing five criminal counts of insider trading, the AMF released its second bombshell for the time.
The regulator alleges that the 13 named individuals ‘traded whilst in possession of privileged information, or they leaked privileged information about potential mergers and acquisitions involving Amaya Inc.
‘In all,’ in all, it continued, ‘they are speculated to have realized a profit of close to CA$1.5 million ($1.13 million) between 2011 and 2016.’
This shows that the scope of the investigation predates the PokerStars acquisition and that AMF is probing previous cases of suspected insider trading in Amaya’s stock.
Amaya first went public on the TSX Venture Exchange in 2010, at $1 a share july. Last year, it purchased both Chartwell Technology and Cryptologic, even though the second deal was maybe not finalized until very early 2012.
Josh Baazov’s Questionable Past
In 1993, at the chronilogical age of 24, Ofer aka Josh Baazov served 90 days in prison for four counts of cocaine possession. Many years later on, a federal court in Ohio ruled that their telemarketing business had scammed senior residents in the Midwest out of thousands and thousands of bucks.
Baazov apparently lured them to just take out expensive subscriptions in return for valuable gifts, except those gifts were never delivered, according to the court. The judge ordered Josh to pay $777,000 in restitutions to his victims at that point.
But Canada’s Globe and Mail news site, which has covered the AMF investigation assiduously since the regulator first raided Amaya’s offices in December 2014, recently discovered that Josh Baazov had not paid one cent towards the compensation order.
Links to Amaya
Amaya has rejected that Josh Baazov, whose previous brushes with regulations would preclude him from obtaining a gaming license himself, has ever been a worker or a shareholder associated with company.
But he was when described by a business that is former of both Baazovs, Albert Jan, as a ‘founder’ of the company, along with his brother David. Meanwhile, the world and Mail found instances that are numerous which Josh Baazov has represented Amaya’s interests in different capacities, heading back as far as 2012.
Also named by the AMF is Craig Levett, a business that is longstanding of both Josh and David’s, who was photographed with Josh Baazov on a journey to the Dominican Republic in 2012 to advertise Amaya’s online casino services and products to casino officials.
Amaya is standing behind its CEO, who claims he will ‘vigorously contest’ the fees against him.
Philippines Casino Executive Charged with Cash Laundering in Ny Fed Reserve Bank Cyber Heist
Philippines casino scandal: Kim Wong, president for the Philippines-based Eastern Hawaii Casino, is faced with cash laundering vast amounts stolen in the Fed Bank cyber heist. (Image: newsinfo.inquirer.net)
A top-ranking Philippines casino administrator is facing money laundering charges for their alleged role in February’s $80 million cyber heist on the Federal Reserve Bank of the latest York.
On February 5, computer hackers flooded the Fed with needs to transfer almost $1 billion from a free account used by the Bangladeshi Central Bank for worldwide settlements into various records around the world.
Only four of those requests were really processed before the scheme had been recognized, plus some $81 million ended up being transported into accounts at Filipino bank RCBC.
From there, $46 million was laundered through the minimally regulated Philippines casino industry, specifically via Bloomberry Resorts’ Solaire Resort and Casino in Manila, and also the Eastern Hawaii Casino and Resort in the Cagayan Economic Zone.
Top Executives Implicated
This week, Filipino authorities filed complaints that are criminal Eastern Hawaii Casino President Kim Wong, also Chinese junket operator Weikang Xu. Wong is accused of withdrawing around $21.6 million of the funds from their personal and corporate accounts.
Meanwhile, Xu apparently received $30 million from one of this RCBC records, of which he passed $29 million to Solaire.
Wong, who is understood to be ‘abroad,’ has said that he’s ‘ready and willing’ to the Philippines to offer their testimony.
‘It is our impression that some very effective people are afraid of what our customer will disclose, this is exactly why a case that is premature filed against him,’ Wong’s lawyer Victor Fernandez said this week. ‘ They probably think that filing the situation will deter our client from coming house and testifying before the Senate. These are typically incorrect,’ he said.
But Philippines Senator Sergio Osmeña III believes that Wong is the ‘missing website link’ in the event.
‘There is an orchestrator right here, a mastermind, and right now, it appears want it’s Kim Wong,’ Osmeña told reporters. ‘But we must give him a chance and back let him come from his trip abroad to testify prior to the committee.
‘He’s a big player in this,’ the senator added.
Demands Reform
Additionally under scrutiny is RCBC manager Maia Santos-Deguito, whom allegedly didn’t stop payments coming from the New York bank, plus in reality proceeded to accept the fund transfer to gambling enterprises, despite the stop payments notice from the Federal Reserve. Deguito claims that Wong individually asked her to open the RCBC accounts through which the amount of money passed away, using names that are fictitious.
She also claimed that she processed the transactions because her family had been threatened, although she later retracted this statement at a hearing of the Philippines Senate.
The scandal has increased calls for reforms to the nation’s banking and casino companies, which, unlike many elsewhere, are under little obligation to report suspicious patterns, or transactions more than a threshold that is certain in the title of client privacy.
New Hampshire Gambling Bill Dead for 2016, State Opts alternatively to finance War on Drugs
Once a horse that is famed, one state lawmaker was trying to bring legal brand New Hampshire gambling towards the Rockingham Park site, but the bill failed this week. (Image: Samantha Goresh/Concord Monitor)
New Hampshire gambling proponents have actually once again lost their fight to create commercial casino-style gambling to the ‘Live Free or Die’ state. Though New Hampshire has a continuing state lottery and allows charitable games of chance, it’s one of simply seven states that doesn’t offer commercial, tribal, or racetrack gambling to residents.
On Thursday, their state Senate voted 13-11 to kill Sen. Lou D’Allesandro’s (D-District 20) attempt that is latest to legalize video lottery machines and table gaming. SB 551 would have licensed just one single gambling location in the entire state, but a lot of D’Allesandro’s constituents nevertheless could not get up to speed.
A advocate that is longtime of New Hampshire gambling, D’Allesandro might have experienced enough.
‘This is a work I have put my heart and soul into for a long time,’ the lawmaker told the Concord track magazine. ‘I’m not going to accomplish this too numerous more times.’
Rockingham’s Storied Past
D’Allesandro has introduced gambling bills for many consecutive years, all of which have failed to get the support that is necessary passage.
SB 551 sought to return gambling to the Rockingham Park horse racetrack in Salem. First built in 1906, Rockingham has a history that is rich includes hosting the famed thoroughbred Seabiscuit though he never won a race at the site.
Like many other tracks across the nation, Rockingham fell on a down economy following the 2008 economic recession and horse race ceased in 2009. Today, the as soon as famed track simulcasts races and hosts poker tournaments seven times per week, with proceeds benefiting local charities.
Charitable games are of course never as popular with experienced players being a percentage that is large of buy-in goes to charity instead of the pot.
Supporters of allowing Rockingham to allow non-charitable tables and video lottery games argue amending the current law would generate $100 million annually in new revenues. Rockingham should indeed be located in just what appears to be the perfect locale to attract a number of patrons as the track is just 30 miles north of Boston and 25 miles south of Manchester, New Hampshire’s largest city.
Rockingham now faces a fate all too common in today’s horse racing industry: closure.
‘I remember when 25,000 people a day would come,’ d’allesandro said. ‘We all desire to spend cash but no one would like to raise it.’
War on Drugs
While lawmakers in New Hampshire did not budge on gambling, they did tackle a topic that is certainly much more dire. The Senate voted unanimously on Thursday to spend $5.1 million to fight the ongoing epidemic that is opioid.
The latest Hampshire Department of wellness and Human Services will collect $4.5 million to be utilized either to finance sober housing programs or increase spending on Governor Maggie Hassan’s (D) Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention, Treatment, and Recovery. The staying $500,000 and change are used to endow a peer-to-peer recovery initiative.
Warranted or perhaps not, the stigmas that can come with commercialized casinos might have impacted the vote that is close bringing legalized gambling to New Hampshire.
Online Gambling Profit Speed Creates False Sense of Real Money Potential at Land-Based Casinos
After significantly less than a dozen spins, we scored a 16,375 win for a 750 credit wager, perhaps a little bit of proof that on the web gambling win prices are far greater than physical slots. (Image: hollywoodcasin.com)
Free online gambling slots and other various formats have much better odds than you’ll find in a real brick-and-mortar casino. That willn’t come as a surprise, as gambling organizations design the Internet offerings to entice gamblers that are new their real money floors.
It seems harmless sufficient to give those playing for fun more chances of striking the jackpot, but the truth is the higher it’s likely being accused of leading to a rise in gambling addiction.
‘When it concerns gambling, the easier a game is to understand the worse the chances usually are,’ the Wizard of Odds website states. With slots, all the player must do is simply press a button, and that tremendous ease and fast rate of play means ‘there is no quicker way to lose your cash.’
While slots in a physical casino come with the worst odds in the whole building, at online fun money gambling enterprises they truly are slightly better and might create a false sense of genuine winning.
‘Social gaming raises concerns because there continues to be a risk of using it compulsively,’ nationwide Council on Problem Gambling Executive Director Keith Whyte told the Boston Globe this week. ‘It’s the action of gambling that is addicting, not the awards.’
Plainridge’s Plain Jane
The first commercial casino location in Massachusetts, the Plainridge Park Casino slot parlor opened its doorways final June. The facility, which accompanies the Plainridge harness-racing horse track, offers over 1,200 machines that are slot.
Nonetheless, through its parent business Penn National Gaming, Plainridge now allows players over the country to play for fun on its Hollywood Casino online internet site. Critics have quickly pointed to the site’s superior odds compared to what players will discover on the actual Plainridge floor.
‘then that’s misleading,’ New York University professor and gambling addiction author Natasha Schull said if the games look the same and sound the same, but the payback of one is much lower.
Problem addiction and gambling is without question a stigma in the usa and something worthy of a wider discussion. As gambling in the nation has expanded throughout the last decade, campaigns to curtail gaming dependency have increased, but the shaming of addicts lingers.
Just this New Jersey’s Asbury Park big ben pokie free download Press noticed that the Tropicana Atlantic City website called problem gamblers degenerates week.
‘Bet with your mind, maybe not over it. You know is a degenerate gambler and wants help, call 1-800-Gambler.’
Tropicana has since omitted the term.
Not Our Problem
Earlier this month, Casino.org reported on the fact that while March marks Problem Gambling Awareness Month, Plainridge still hadn’t implemented its guaranteed problem program that is gambling.
In conformity to its licensing by Massachusetts, Plainridge must follow a accountable strategy to curb reliant gamblers. Penn National submitted a ‘play management’ program that may enable players to set restrictions and time restrictions, but the operational system has still not been incorporated into the slot machines.
Plainridge is underperforming in its first year of procedure. The venue was expected to build $300-500 million in taxation income this but is on pace to collect under $200 million year.