raid on starnet result of 18-month probe - 500 Beiträge pro Seite

[elmacho]

aus www.nationalpost.com
hier dürfte wohl jedem klar werden wa sim spiel ist !!!
eine übersetzung der wichtigsten passagen währe willkommen ..



Tuesday, August 24, 1999

Raid on Starnet result of 18-month probe
Internet gambling: Lack of regulations makes it target, company says

John Schreiner
National Post

VANCOUVER - Last week`s raid on Starnet Communications International Inc., an Internet gambling and pornography company, was the result of 18 months of work by Canadian and U.S. law enforcement agencies trying to establish a basis for curbing the burgeoning and largely unregulated Internet gaming business, search warrant documents show.

Using the codename Project Enigma, the RCMP and Vancouver Police Department worked with the Ontario Provincial Police, the United States Internal Revenue Service, the United States Customs Services assembling a dossier on Starnet.

The 68-page search warrant describes police officers wagering over the Internet and downloading graphic pornography. The document said that the police are investigating alleged "offences of illegal gambling, the distribution of pornography and money laundering, all using the Internet." It sets out eight counts of Criminal Code violations.

The search warrant notes that a Vancouver police detective who is the gaming specialist at the Co-ordinated Law Enforcement Unit determined from the B.C. government that "there are no Internet or virtual casinos licences to operate by the Province of British Columbia and that no one in British Columbia is licensed to bookmaking for single event sports action."

Mark Dohlen, Starnet`s chairman, said yesterday that the lack of regulation makes his company a target. "Starnet is a cutting-edge company that is a pioneer in Internet gaming. We believe the selective investigation into the operations of our company is a result of a misunderstanding of Internet issues as they relate to the process of our business and the venues in which are businesses are offered. There is little or no legal precedent relative to this business."

The police raided Starnet last Friday, the same day search-warrant documents concerning the raid of on the home of Glen Clark, the B.C. premier, were made public. There had been speculation that the two events were linked, because one of Starnet`s original shareholders was Steven Ng, a partner of Dmitrios Pilarinos in the casino application that police were investigating.

But Starnet spokesmen say Mr. Ng is no longer connected to the company, and the search warrant information makes no connection between the company and the investigation of the premier.

Project Enigma was launched initially just by the RCMP. As the investigation grew, it was placed under the Co-ordinated Law Enforcement Unit, a multi-police anti-crime unit in B.C. with specialists such as an accountant identified in the warrant only as Special Constable Wong. He posed as a potential investor in one 1998 visit to Starnet`s offices and at an Internet gaming conference in Vancouver in June this year. At the conference he met a lawyer from Antigua who helps incorporate Starnet licensees there and he asked whether those licensees are allowed to take bets from Americans.

According to the warrant, he was told: "Officially its [sic] discouraged but if you want to, you know, they can`t really stop you."

At least five detectives, including RCMP Staff Sergeant Michael Ryan, who obtained the warrant, began wagering under "covert identifies" on sites described as being licensed by Starnet.

Sgt. Ryan describes eight wagers he made at four different sites, including Casino of the Kings. For example, he made a winning $30 bet on a National Hockey League game on Dec.15, 1998, after making a losing $20 bet on a National Football league game the day before.

The detectives also ordered free CD-ROMs to enable them to play card games on various sites. In an attempt to link these sites to Starnet, they requested cheques of their winnings. Some came in envelopes from St. Kitts or Antigua in the Caribbean, the claimed locale of Starnet`s sites, but others came in envelopes bearing the return address of the Starnet office in Vancouver.

The detectives also used commercial software to trace the route of transactions over the Internet and found many were handled by servers in the Starnet office.

In November, 1998, a Starnet employee named Margaret Carley complained to the Vancouver police that someone was trying to defraud the company with an invalid credit card. A detective named Wickberg, one of the Enigma team, used this complaint as cover for going to the Starnet offices.

[Tahuma]

Die Durchsuchung war ein Ergebnis einer 18-monatigen Arbeit von canad. Und amerik.Behörden um "eine Basis zu etablieren" um das aufkommende und weitgehend unregulierte Internet-gaming-business einzudämmen.

Der 68-seitige Durchsuchungsbefehl beschreibt Polizisten, die gespielt haben und Pornographie runtergeladen haben. Das Dokument sagt, daß die Polizei vorgeworfene Verstöße von illegalem Glückspiel, die Verbreitung von Pornographie und Geldwäsche durch das Inetrnet untersucht. Es enthält insgesamt 8 Verstöße.

Profekt Enigma wurde zuerst nur vom RCPM begonnen. Als die Untersuchungen größer wurden, wurde es unter die Koordination des Law Enforcement Unit gesetzt, einer Spezialeinheit. C. Wang stellte sich auf der Vancouver-Konferenz als ein Investor vor und fragte ob es erlaubt wäre, Wetten aus Amerik anzunehmen
Ihm wurde gesagt: Offiziell nein, aber wenn es jemand möchte, kann man ihn nicht wirklich daran hindern.

Beamte haben dann auf vier verschiedenen Seiten gespielt, unter anderem Casino of the Kings. Polizisten haben dann Tracingsoftware verwendet um Transaktionsvorgänge zu überwachen und haben herausgefunden, daß viele Transaktionen über die Stanetoffice in Vancouver liefen.

Gruß Tahuma

[Das Ich]

"but others came in envelopes bearing the return address of the Starnet office in Vancouver" ??!?!?

Und wo steht was von ABGESENDET in Vancouver? Oder gibt es in Canada keine Poststempel mehr?

So langsam lernt man das Zwischen-den-Zeilen-Lesen mit dieser Aktie .

Ciao,
Das auf bessere Zeiten hoffende Ich