
Josh Baazov, David Baazov’s elusive older brother, that is also a suspect in the AMF case against.
AMF, the Canadian financial regulator, yesterday executed search warrants against 13 new individuals suspected of alleged involvement in securities fraud Amaya that is concerning stock dating as far back as 2011, well ahead of 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 information that is privileged prospective 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. In 2011, it purchased both Chartwell Technology and Cryptologic, even though the deal that is latter perhaps not finalized until very 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. Many years later on, a court that is federal Ohio ruled that his telemarketing company had scammed senior residents into the Midwest out of thousands and thousands of dollars.
Baazov apparently lured them to simply 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 2014, recently discovered that Josh Baazov had not paid one cent towards the compensation order december.
Links to Amaya
Amaya has denied that Josh Baazov, whose previous brushes with regulations would preclude him from obtaining a video gaming license himself, has ever been a worker or a shareholder of this company.
But he was once described by a business that is former of both Baazovs, Albert Jan, as a ‘founder’ associated with company, together with his brother David. Meanwhile, the planet and Mail found numerous instances in which Josh Baazov has represented Amaya’s interests in different capabilities, returning so far as 2012.
Additionally named by the AMF is Craig Levett, a business that is longstanding of both Josh and David’s, who had been photographed with Josh Baazov on a journey to the Dominican Republic in 2012 to promote Amaya’s online casino items to casino officials.
Amaya is standing behind its CEO, who claims he will ‘vigorously contest’ the charges against him.
Philippines Casino Executive Charged with Cash Laundering in Nyc Fed Reserve Bank Cyber Heist
Philippines casino scandal: Kim Wong, president for the Eastern that is philippines-based Hawaii, is faced with cash laundering millions of dollars taken in the Fed Bank cyber heist. (Image: newsinfo.inquirer.net)
A top-ranking Philippines casino professional is facing money laundering charges for their alleged part in February’s $80 million cyber heist regarding 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 really processed before the scheme ended up being recognized, plus some $81 million had been moved 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, therefore 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, in addition to 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 in one associated with RCBC accounts, of which he passed $29 million to Solaire.
Wong, that is comprehended 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 folks are afraid of what our client will disclose, this is exactly why a case that is premature filed against him,’ Wong’s lawyer Victor Fernandez said this week. ‘ They most likely think that filing the situation will deter our client from coming house and testifying before the Senate. They truly are 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 looks enjoy it’s Kim Wong,’ Osmeña told reporters. ‘But we have to give him the possibility 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.
Calls for Reform
Additionally under scrutiny is RCBC manager Maia Santos-Deguito, whom allegedly neglected to stop payments coming from the ny bank, plus in fact proceeded to approve the fund transfer to casinos, despite the stop payments notice from the Federal Reserve. Deguito claims that Wong really asked her to start the RCBC accounts through which the amount of money passed away, making use of names that are fictitious.
She also 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 country’s banking and casino industries, which, unlike many elsewhere, are under little responsibility to report suspicious patterns, or transactions over a threshold that is certain in the name of consumer privacy.
Brand New Hampshire Gambling Bill Dead for 2016, State Opts Instead to finance War on Drugs
Once a horse that is famed, one state lawmaker was trying to bring legal New Hampshire gambling to the Rockingham Park site, however the bill failed this week. (Image: Samantha Goresh/Concord Monitor)
New Hampshire gambling proponents have actually once again destroyed their fight to create commercial casino-style gambling to the ‘Live Free or Die’ state. Though brand New Hampshire has state lottery and enables charitable games of chance, it’s one of simply seven states that doesn’t 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 would have licensed only one single gambling location in the whole state, but a majority of D’Allesandro’s constituents nevertheless could not get on board.
A longtime advocate of legalizing New Hampshire gambling, D’Allesandro might experienced 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 newspaper. ‘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, every one of which have actually failed to gain the necessary help for 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 competition at your website.
Like so many other tracks across the nation, Rockingham fell on tough times following the 2008 economic recession and horse race ceased during 2009. Today, the track that is once famed races and hosts poker tournaments seven days per week, with proceeds benefiting local charities.
Charitable games are of course never as appealing to seasoned players as siberian storm slot machine play free a large percentage regarding the 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 present legislation would generate $100 million annually in new revenues. Rockingham is definitely located in exactly what appears become 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: closing.
‘I remember whenever 25,000 people a would come,’ d’allesandro said day. ‘We all want to spend cash but no one would like to raise it.’
War on Drugs
While lawmakers in New Hampshire didn’t budge on gambling, they did tackle a topic that is indeed much more dire. The Senate voted unanimously on Thursday to spend $5.1 million to fight the ongoing opioid epidemic.
The New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services will collect $4.5 million to be used either to finance housing that is sober 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 will likely be used to endow a recovery initiative that is peer-to-peer.
Warranted or perhaps not, the stigmas that come with commercialized casinos might have impacted the close vote on bringing legalized gambling to New Hampshire.
Online Gambling Win Speed Creates False Sense of Real Cash Potential at Land-Based Casinos
After not as much as a dozen spins, we scored a 16,375 win for a 750 credit bet, perhaps a bit of proof that on line gambling winnings rates are far higher than physical slots. (Image: hollywoodcasin.com)
Free online gambling slots and other various formats have much better odds than you’ll find in a actual brick-and-mortar casino. That shouldn’t come as a surprise, as gambling businesses design the Internet offerings to entice gamblers that are new their real money floors.
It seems harmless sufficient to give those playing for enjoyable more chances of striking the jackpot, but in reality the better odds are being accused of leading to an increase in gambling addiction.
‘When it involves gambling, the easier a game is to realize the worse the chances usually are,’ the Wizard of Odds website states. With slots, all of the player must do is just 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 casino that is physical with the worst odds within the whole building, at online fun money gambling enterprises they’re slightly better and might create a false sense of genuine 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, not the prizes.’
Plainridge’s Plain Jane
The very first casino that is commercial 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.
But, through its parent business Penn National Gaming, Plainridge now allows players over the national country to play for fun on its Hollywood Casino on line web site. Experts have quickly pointed to the site’s superior chances compared to what players will find 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 us and something worthy of a wider discussion. As gambling in the country has expanded throughout the decade that is last campaigns to curtail video gaming dependency have increased, however the shaming of addicts lingers.
Just this week, New Jersey’s Asbury Park Press realized that the Tropicana Atlantic City website called problem gamblers degenerates.
‘Bet with your head, perhaps not over it. In the event that you or some one you know is a degenerate gambler and wants help, call 1-800-Gambler.’
Tropicana has since omitted the word.
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 issue gambling system.
In accordance to its licensing by Massachusetts, Plainridge must adopt a strategy that is responsible curb dependent gamblers. Penn National presented a ‘play management’ program that may enable players setting restrictions and time limitations, but the operational system has still not been incorporated into the slot machines.
Plainridge is underperforming in its year that is first of. The venue had been expected to generate $300-500 million in taxation income this year, but is on speed to collect under $200 million.
