Olaf Schuett Accused of Laundering US Poker Winnings
Written by Renee K | Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010
A German citizen, Michael Olaf Schuett, has been nabbed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and accused with laundering over $70 million in online poker winnings. The FBI claims that Schuett has been active in the money laundering business for around 3 years and has served over 23,000 players. The majority of them were US poker players.
The 29 year old Schuett’s modus operandi was to act as a payment middleman between US poker players and offshore poker sites. He would receive payment from the sites and then distribute checks to US players when they withdrew their winnings.
The FBI was tipped off by Federal Express that Schuett was sending up to fifty parcels to different US destinations each day, and once one of them was opened, multiple checks were found inside. “Federal Express employees became suspicious of Schuett’s activity when Schuett began mailing over 150 parcels per week. FedEx employees opened several of the parcels and determined that each contained a check,” noted a federal complaint.
His activities were also noted by bank staff who alerted the FBI after customers tried to cash large checks from his registered company, MCM Capital Management. The customers told bank staff that the checks represented poker winnings.
The FBI reported that they had locked over $2 million in cash in several leading banks, including Sun Trust, Bank of America and Royal Bank of Canada. Schuett is accused of having opened multiple bank accounts – 40 with Bank America, for example – and using them in his money laundering scheme.
Judges have requested that the banks holding the funds keep the accounts locked pending further investigation.
Schuett, who holds a visa to the United States until April, is currently being held without bond while authorities investigate. The German citizen has had his assets, including computers, seized as part of the investigation.
It stands to reason that if the US introduced a legalized, regulated online poker system, the millions of poker players in the country would not need to rely on middlemen such as Michael Olaf Schuett to get their winnings that were rightfully earned.
Source: Napes News
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· Written by Renee K · Filed Under Poker Gossip · Comments Off
