PayPal Inc., the online payment network run by eBay, agreed to pay $10 million to settle charges that it acted as a go-between for illegal payments between gamblers and offshore online casinos, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri said last week.
According to the U.S. attorney, from October 2001 to November 2002 PayPal illegally transmitted money for use in illegal gambling in violation of the federal Wire Wager Act. PayPal, San Jose, CA, also agreed to maintain a corporate compliance program for at least two years.
U.S. attorney Raymond Gruender “commended the cooperative, conciliatory approach of PayPal and eBay,” the U.S. attorney general's office said.
In August 2002, PayPal paid $200,000 in investigative costs to the New York attorney general's office in another case alleging it had a hand in illegal online gambling and agreed to cease processing payments for gamblers in New York state to online casinos.
