LST Financial Forfeits Nearly $6 Million from Online Poker Proceeds
LST Financial, a San Antonia based financial services provider is forfeiting almost $6 million in proceeds made from processing payments made to players who participated in online gambling. LST agreed to return these funds after the feds froze an undisclosed amount of money owned by the firm. Most of the frozen funds were not proceeds made through online gaming.
The firm has agreed that it will never support an online gaming establishment again, either directly or indirectly. However, it also affirms it was not at fault.
LST said that three different online poker firms misrepresented themselves as another type of business. The firm issued a press statement claiming that it had no idea it was supporting online gaming establishments. The firms in question are reportedly Pokerstars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker.
Prosecutors are inclined to believe LST Financial’s claims that it didn’t knowingly support an illegal gambling business. The firm that accepted the funds is reportedly owned by Ryan Lang. Back in April, Lang admitted that he setup shell companies from Canada to act as an intermediary between poker companies and banks. Many of the banks involved in the scheme Lang setup had no knowledge that they were involved in anything remotely associated with online poker.
Michael Bachner, an attorney for the financial processing provider, said that his client is grateful the feds were willing to negotiate this agreement. LST now has access to the funds that were not associated with any the earnings from online gaming providers.
Prosecutors have not stated any intention of filing criminal charges against any of the executives at LST Financial.