Josh Baazov, David Baazov’s elusive older brother, who is also 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 fraud concerning Amaya stock, dating as far back as 2011, well prior to 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 news headlines that David Baazov was facing five criminal counts of insider trading, the AMF released its second bombshell regarding the time.
The regulator alleges that the 13 named individuals ‘traded while in possession of privileged information, or they leaked information that is privileged possible 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 suggests 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 July, 2010, at $1 a share. In 2011, it purchased both Chartwell Technology and Cryptologic, although the deal that is latter perhaps not finalized until early 2012.
Josh Baazov’s Questionable Past
In 1993, at the chronilogical age of 24, Ofer aka Josh Baazov served ninety days in prison for four counts of cocaine possession. Several years later, a federal court in Ohio ruled that his telemarketing company had scammed senior residents into the Midwest out of thousands and thousands of dollars.
Baazov reportedly lured them to take out expensive subscriptions in return for valuable gifts, except those gifts were never delivered, according to the court. At that point, the judge ordered Josh to pay $777,000 in restitutions to his victims.
But Canada’s Globe and Mail news web site, which has covered the AMF investigation assiduously since the regulator first raided Amaya’s offices in 2014, recently discovered that Josh Baazov had not paid one cent towards the compensation order december.
Links to Amaya
Amaya has rejected that Josh Baazov, whose previous brushes with what the law states would preclude him from trying to get a gaming license himself, has ever been a worker or a shareholder associated with company.
But he was once described by a business that is former of both Baazovs, Albert Jan, as a ‘founder’ associated with the company, together with his brother David. Meanwhile, the https://wizardofozslot.org/texas-tea-slots/ planet and Mail discovered numerous instances in which Josh Baazov has represented Amaya’s interests in different capabilities, going back in terms of 2012.
Additionally 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 trip to your Dominican Republic in 2012 to promote Amaya’s online casino products to casino officials.
Amaya is standing behind its CEO, whom says he will ‘vigorously contest’ the charges against him.
Philippines Casino Executive Charged with Money Laundering in New York Fed Reserve Bank Cyber Heist
Philippines casino scandal: Kim Wong, president of the Philippines-based Eastern Hawaii Casino, is faced with cash laundering huge amount of money taken in the Fed Bank cyber heist. (Image: newsinfo.inquirer.net)
A top-ranking Philippines casino administrator is facing money laundering charges for their alleged part in February’s $80 million cyber heist on the Federal Reserve Bank of the latest York.
On 5, computer hackers flooded the Fed with requests to transfer almost $1 billion from an account used by the Bangladeshi Central Bank for international settlements into various accounts around the world february.
Only four among these requests were actually processed before the scheme ended up being recognized, plus some $81 million ended up being transferred 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, as well as 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 reportedly received $30 million from a single of the RCBC reports, of which he passed $29 million to Solaire.
Wong, that is comprehended to be ‘abroad,’ has said that he is ‘ready and willing’ to the Philippines to offer their testimony.
‘It is our impression that some very powerful individuals are afraid of what our client will disclose, that’s why a premature situation was 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 here, a mastermind, and right now, it appears enjoy it’s Kim Wong,’ Osmeña told reporters. ‘But we have to offer him the opportunity and back let him come from his journey abroad to testify before the committee.
‘He’s a player that is big this,’ the senator added.
Demands Reform
Additionally under scrutiny is RCBC manager Maia Santos-Deguito, who allegedly didn’t stop payments coming from the New York bank, plus in reality proceeded to approve the fund transfer to gambling enterprises, despite the stop payments notice from the Federal Reserve. Deguito claims that Wong personally asked her to start the RCBC accounts through which the money passed away, using fictitious names.
She additionally advertised although she later retracted this statement at a hearing of the Philippines Senate that she processed the transactions because her family had been threatened.
The scandal has increased calls for reforms to the united states’s banking and casino industries, which, unlike many elsewhere, are under little obligation to report suspicious patterns, or deals over a threshold that is certain in the title of customer privacy.
Brand New Hampshire Gambling Bill Dead for 2016, State Opts Instead to Fund War on Drugs
Once a horse that is famed, one state lawmaker was wanting to bring legal New Hampshire gambling to the Rockingham Park site, nevertheless the bill failed this week. (Image: Samantha Goresh/Concord Monitor)
New Hampshire gambling proponents have once again destroyed their fight to bring casino-style that is commercial to the ‘Live Free or Die’ state. Though New Hampshire has state lottery and enables charitable games of chance, it’s one of simply seven states that does not offer commercial, tribal, or racetrack gambling to residents.
On Thursday, hawaii Senate voted 13-11 to kill Sen. Lou D’Allesandro’s (D-District 20) latest attempt to legalize video lottery machines and table gaming. SB 551 could have licensed only 1 single gambling location in the complete state, but a majority of D’Allesandro’s constituents still couldn’t get up to speed.
A advocate that is longtime of New Hampshire gambling, D’Allesandro might have had enough.
‘This is a labor I have placed my heart and soul into for a time that is long’ the lawmaker told the Concord track magazine. ‘I’m not going to do this too many more times.’
Rockingham’s Storied Past
D’Allesandro has introduced gambling bills for many consecutive years, most of which have failed to achieve 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 battle at your website.
Like numerous other songs across the nation, Rockingham fell on tough times following the 2008 recession that is economic horse race ceased in 2009. Today, the when famed track simulcasts races and hosts poker tournaments seven times per week, with proceeds benefiting local charities.
Charitable games are of course much less appealing to experienced players being a percentage that is large of buy-in would go to charity as opposed to the pot.
Supporters of allowing Rockingham to allow non-charitable tables and video lottery games argue amending the law that is current generate $100 million annually in new revenues. Rockingham is indeed situated in 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: closing.
‘I remember when 25,000 people a day would come,’ d’allesandro said. ‘We all wish to spend cash but no one wants to raise it.’
War on Drugs
While lawmakers in New Hampshire did not budge on gambling, they did tackle a subject that is certainly much more dire. The Senate voted unanimously on Thursday to invest $5.1 million to fight the ongoing epidemic that is opioid.
The latest Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services will collect $4.5 million to be properly used either to fund sober housing programs or increase spending on Governor Maggie Hassan’s (D) Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention, Treatment, and Recovery. The remaining $500,000 and change is used to endow a recovery initiative that is peer-to-peer.
Warranted or otherwise not, the stigmas that can come with commercialized casinos might have impacted the close vote on bringing legalized gambling to New Hampshire.
Online Gambling Profit Speed Creates False Sense of Real Money Potential at Land-Based Casinos
After less than a dozen spins, we scored a 16,375 win for a 750 credit wager, perhaps a bit of proof that online gambling winnings rates are far greater than physical slot machines. (Image: hollywoodcasin.com)
Free online gambling slots and other various formats come with much better odds than you’ll find in a actual brick-and-mortar casino. That shouldn’t come as a shock, as gambling businesses design the Internet offerings to entice gamblers that are new their real cash floors.
It seems harmless sufficient to give those playing for fun more chances of striking the jackpot, but in reality the better it’s likely being accused of leading to an increase in gambling addiction.
‘When it involves gambling, the easier a game is to understand the worse chances usually are,’ the Wizard of Odds website states. With slots, all of the player must do is simply press a key, and that tremendous ease and fast rate of play means ‘there is no quicker way to lose your cash.’
While slots in a casino that is physical with the worst odds into the whole building, at online fun money casinos they truly are slightly better and might create a false feeling of real winning.
‘Social gaming raises concerns because there is still a risk of using it compulsively,’ National Council on Problem Gambling Executive Director Keith Whyte told the Boston Globe this week. ‘It’s the action of gambling that is addictive, perhaps not the awards.’
Plainridge’s Plain Jane
The first commercial casino location in Massachusetts, the Plainridge Park Casino slot parlor opened its doors last June. The facility, which accompanies the Plainridge harness-racing horse track, offers over 1,200 machines that are slot.
However, through its parent business Penn National Gaming, Plainridge now allows players throughout the national country to play for fun on its Hollywood Casino on line website. Experts have quickly pointed to the site’s superior odds compared to what players will discover on the Plainridge that is actual floor.
‘If the games look the same and appear the same, but the payback of one is much reduced, then that’s misleading,’ brand new York University professor and gambling addiction author Natasha Schull said.
Problem addiction and gambling is without question a stigma in the United States and something worthy of a wider discussion. As gambling in the nation has expanded over the last decade, campaigns to curtail video gaming dependency have risen, nevertheless the shaming of addicts lingers.
Just this New Jersey’s Asbury Park Press noticed that the Tropicana Atlantic City website called problem gamblers degenerates week.
‘Bet with your mind, perhaps not over it. You know is a degenerate gambler and wants help, call 1-800-Gambler.’
Tropicana has since omitted the phrase.
Not Our Problem
Earlier this month, Casino.org reported in the fact that while March marks Problem Gambling Awareness Month, Plainridge still had not implemented its guaranteed problem gambling program.
In accordance to its licensing by Massachusetts, Plainridge must follow a accountable strategy to curb reliant gamblers. Penn National presented a ‘play management’ program that will allow players to set limits and time limitations, but the system has still not been incorporated into the slot machines.
Plainridge is underperforming in its first year of operation. The venue was anticipated to come up with $300-500 million in taxation income this but is on pace to collect under $200 million year.