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Poker e-Wallet NETELLER Founders to Fight All ChargesThu, Jan 25th, 2007 @ 12:00am Yesterday, a New York judge set Feb. 14 as the date for a preliminary hearing for John Lefebvre, 55, and Stephen Lawrence, 46, who in 1999 co-founded NETELLER, the popular e-wallet used by many online poker players. The pair were arrested Jan. 15 and charged with laundering billions of dollars in illegal gambling profits for handling transactions between US customers and online gambling sites while they were NETELLER execs. Mr Lawrence resigned as a non-executive director of the company on October 13, 2006, the same day that the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) became law. He had stepped down as non-executive chairman the prior May. Mr Lefebvre had resigned as a non-executive director on December 15, 2005. However, the pair are still large shareholders of NETELLER. Mr Lawrence holds 5.91 per cent of the company, while Mr Lefebvre owns 5.54 per cent. NETELLER's 2005 annual report said that Lawrence and Lefebvre enabled the company to provide payment services to more than 80 percent of worldwide gaming merchants, and that NETELLER handled over $7 million financial transactions in 2005. On January 18 NETELLER stopped processing money between US customers and online gambling sites. At a brief hearing yesterday, the New York judge extended the $5 million bail for Lefebvre. Lefebvre refused to comment on the charges, and spoke only to say "end global warming." Under the bail terms, Lefebvre has surrendered his travel documents and is restricted to traveling within parts of New York and California, where the charges against him are filed. Similarly, Lawrence appeared in court last week, where his bail was extended, his travel documents were seized, and travel restrictions placed on him. Lefebvre's lawyer, Vincent Marella, said Lefebvre plans to contest all charges against him. Last week, Lawrence also confirmed that he will contest the allegations brought against him. Marella questioned the validity of the charges, saying, "I don't know why the [US authorities] are bothering with this now, or why at all. It's not clear that this is a liable area of law enforcement." He noted that the government has to file formal charges before the mid-February hearing. If Lefebvre and fellow Calgary Canada native Lawrence are convicted, they could each face up to 20 years in prison. The case is U.S. v. Lawrence, 07-00012, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (Manhattan). Read Related Articles:
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