Thursday May 16,2013 : FORMER ONLINE GAMBLING EXEC ARRESTED FOR FRAUD
Angelciti, BetUS and Larry Hartman – blasts from the past…
Online gambling industry veterans will be familiar with the not-so-savoury reputation of companies like Angelciti (the group of RTG-powered online casinos that gave many players the payment runaround several years ago) and the associated BetUS firm, which was accused of questionable behaviour by its affiliate marketers, again some time back.
An individual often connected to both of these seemingly dodgy operations, Larry Hartman, surfaced this week in central America where he was arrested pending extradition to the United States on charges unrelated to online gambling.
Erstwhile lawyer Hartman faces serious charges of involvement in fraudulent activity and money laundering, and was picked up early this month whilst trying to wangle a Nicaraguan passport after entering the country illegally from Costa Rica.
Checking up on him, the local constabulary found that Hartman was the subject of an Interpol warrant of arrest dating back three years and alleging that he had been involved in a corporate fraud scheme that fleeced UK investors of hundreds of millions of dollars.
The documentation claims that Hartman, operating with others from the state of Florida, was involved in a scam that converted effectively dead corporate entities into valueless shell companies, which were then hyped up through high pressure person-to-person selling activity and falsified documentation, mainly in the UK and Ireland.
In the four years beginning 2004 the fraudsters are alleged to have sold millions of dollars’ worth of useless shares to unwary, and in many cases elderly, would-be investors in some 54 different companies. Their money went to various accounts created by Hartman in his own and family members names, and those of companies that he controlled.
Full details of the other accuseds and the charges involved can be viewed here:
http://www.justice.gov/usao/flm/programs/vw/gunter/0160_Superseding%20INDICTMENT%20returned%20in%20open%20Court.pdf
Two other US lawyers involved in the scam, Roger Lee Shoss and Nicolette Loisel have already been convicted and sentenced to jail-time and the forfeiture of around $800,000 in ill-gotten gains.
Across the Atlantic in the UK, the principal scamsters, Simon Odoni and Paul Gunter, have also been convicted on a slew of charges and await what is likely to be severe sentencing in July this year.