AMF Says Securities Fraud Probe Pre-Dates Amaya’s PokerStars Acquisition, Baazov Brother Implicated by Regulator

Josh Baazov, David Baazov’s elusive older brother, that is 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 Amaya that is concerning 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.
The AMF released its second bombshell of the day before we’d had time to even fully digest the news that David Baazov was facing five criminal counts of insider trading.
The regulator alleges that the 13 named individuals ‘traded whilst in possession of privileged information, or they leaked privileged information about prospective mergers and acquisitions involving Amaya Inc.
‘In all,’ in all, it continued, ‘they are alleged 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 instances of suspected insider trading in Amaya’s stock.
Amaya first went public on the TSX Venture Exchange in July, 2010, at $1 a share. Last year, it purchased both Chartwell Technology and Cryptologic, although the deal that is latter not finalized until very early 2012.
Josh Baazov’s Questionable Past
In 1993, at the chronilogical age of 24, Ofer aka Josh Baazov served 3 months in prison for four counts of cocaine control. Years later, a court that is federal Ohio ruled that his telemarketing company had scammed senior citizens in the Midwest away from thousands and thousands of bucks.
Baazov apparently 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 December 2014, recently discovered that Josh Baazov had not paid one cent towards the compensation purchase.
Links to Amaya
Amaya has denied that Josh Baazov, whose brushes that are previous the law would preclude him from applying for a video gaming license himself, has ever been an employee or a shareholder of this company.
But he was when described by a previous business partner of both Baazovs, Albert Jan, as a ‘founder’ associated with company, together with his brother David. Meanwhile, the world and Mail found numerous instances in which Josh Baazov has represented Amaya’s interests in various capacities, going back as far as 2012.
Also named by the AMF is Craig Levett, a longstanding company partner of both Josh and David’s, who had been photographed with Josh Baazov on a holiday towards the Dominican Republic in 2012 to promote Amaya’s online casino items to casino officials.
Amaya is standing behind its CEO, who states he will ‘vigorously contest’ the costs against him.
Philippines Casino Executive Charged with Cash Laundering in Ny Fed Reserve Bank Cyber Heist
Philippines casino scandal: Kim Wong, president associated with Eastern that is philippines-based Hawaii, 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 in 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 of these requests were really processed before the scheme had been recognized, and some $81 million ended up being transmitted 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, as well as 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 in one of the RCBC reports, of which he passed $29 million to Solaire.
Wong, who’s understood to be ‘abroad,’ has said that he’s ‘ready and willing’ to the Philippines to offer his testimony.
‘It is our impression that some very powerful individuals are afraid of what our client will disclose, that’s why a premature instance ended up being filed against him,’ Wong’s lawyer Victor Fernandez said this week. ‘ They most likely think that filing the case will deter our customer from coming home and testifying before the Senate. They truly are wrong,’ he said.
But Philippines Senator Sergio Osmeña III believes that Wong is the ‘missing link’ in case.
‘There is an orchestrator here, a mastermind, and right now, it looks like it’s Kim Wong,’ Osmeña told reporters. ‘But we need to give him the opportunity and back let him come from his trip abroad to testify before the committee.
‘He’s a player that is big this,’ the senator included.
Requires Reform
Additionally under scrutiny is RCBC manager Maia Santos-Deguito, who allegedly failed to stop payments from the ny 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 personally asked her to open the RCBC accounts through which the amount of money passed away, using fictitious names.
She also claimed 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 nation’s banking and casino companies, which, unlike many elsewhere, are under little responsibility to report suspicious patterns, or transactions 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 brand New Hampshire gambling to 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 bring commercial casino-style gambling to the ‘Live Free or Die’ state. Though brand New Hampshire has a continuing state lottery and enables charitable games of chance, it’s certainly one of simply seven states that does not offer commercial, tribal, or racetrack gambling to residents.
On Thursday, the 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 might have licensed only one single gambling location in the complete state, but a majority of D’Allesandro’s constituents still couldn’t get on board.
A advocate that is longtime of New Hampshire gambling, D’Allesandro might have had enough.
‘This is a labor I have put my heart and soul into for a time that is long’ the lawmaker told the Concord track magazine. ‘I’m not going doing this too numerous more times.’
Rockingham’s Storied Past
D’Allesandro has introduced gambling bills for many consecutive years, all of which have actually 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 rich history that includes hosting the famed thoroughbred Seabiscuit though he never won a race at your website.
Like many other tracks across the nation, Rockingham fell on tough times following the 2008 economic recession and horse racing ceased in 2009. Today, the track that is once famed races and hosts poker tournaments seven days a week, with proceeds benefiting local charities.
Charitable games are of course much less appealing to seasoned players as being a large percentage regarding the buy-in would go to charity instead of the pot.
Supporters of allowing Rockingham to allow non-charitable tables and video lottery games argue amending the present legislation would generate $100 million yearly in new revenues. Rockingham is indeed situated 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 city that is largest.
Rockingham now faces a fate all too typical in today’s horse racing industry: closure.
‘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 opioid epidemic.
The brand new 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 modification will likely be used to endow a recovery initiative that is peer-to-peer.
Warranted or not, the stigmas that come with commercialized casinos might have impacted the vote that is close bringing legalized gambling to New Hampshire.
Online Gambling Profit Rate Creates False Sense of Real Money Potential at Land-Based Casinos
After not as much as a dozen spins, we scored a 16,375 win on a 750 credit bet, maybe a little bit of proof that online gambling winnings prices are far greater than physical slots. (Image: hollywoodcasin.com)
Free online gambling slots and other various platforms come with https://wheresthegoldslots.com/zorro/ much better odds than you will discover in a actual brick-and-mortar casino. Which shouldn’t come as a shock, as gambling organizations design the Internet offerings to entice gamblers that are new their real cash floors.
It seems harmless enough to provide those playing for enjoyable more opportunities of striking the jackpot, but in reality the greater it’s likely being accused of leading to a rise in gambling addiction.
‘When it comes to gambling, the easier a game is to realize the worse the odds usually are,’ the Wizard of Odds website states. With slots, all of the player must do is in fact press a button, and that tremendous ease and fast rate of play means ‘there is no quicker solution to lose your cash.’
While slots in a casino that is physical with the worst odds in the whole building, at online fun money gambling enterprises they’re slightly better and might create a false feeling of real winning.
‘Social gaming raises concerns because there remains 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 addictive, perhaps not the rewards.’
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 slot machines.
However, through its parent business Penn National Gaming, Plainridge now allows players across the national nation to play for fun on its Hollywood Casino on line internet site. Experts have quickly pointed to the site’s superior chances compared to what players will find on the real 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 gambling and addiction is without question a stigma in the us and something worthy of a wider discussion. As gambling in the nation has expanded within the last decade, campaigns to curtail gaming dependency have risen, but 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 face, perhaps not over it. In the event that you or someone 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 regarding the fact that while March marks Problem Gambling Awareness Month, Plainridge still hadn’t implemented its promised issue program that is gambling.
In accordance to its licensing by Massachusetts, Plainridge must adopt a strategy that is responsible curb reliant gamblers. Penn National submitted a ‘play management’ program which will allow players to create limitations and time limitations, but the system has still not been incorporated into the slot machines.
Plainridge is underperforming in its first 12 months of procedure. The venue was anticipated to create $300-500 million in taxation income this but is on pace to collect under $200 million year.