Optimal Group Inc Agrees To Hand Over $19.2 Million In Payment Processing Case

Optimal Group, Inc has reached a non-prosecution agreement with US Justice Department (DOJ) in return for a $19.2 million forfeiture of funds. At the heart of the case was the electronic processing company, Firepay, which was operating in the US market between 2004 and 2006 but which has since been shut.
The US Justice Department has been ruthlessly pursuing online gambling sites using instruments of law such as the Wire Act, the Illegal Gambling Business Act, and the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act to justify their actions. High on their list of priorities is targetting the financial businesses which process the gambling transactions and in 2007 Firepay became embroiled in the whole clampdown operation when it had assets seized by the DOJ.
“Optimal, operating an electronic wallet called Firepay, processed more than $2 billion worth of illegal gambling transactions for United States customers,” the  U.S. Attorney office said.
Firepay have now acknowledged that they had violated federal law by providing gambling in the United States and have agreed the sum of $19,182,418 in return for non prosecution.
An Optimal statement read that the sum agreed represented a “disgorgement of property involved in and proceeds received from the payment processing services that were provided by the company’s subsidiaries to Internet gambling merchants in relation to U.S. customers of such merchants.” 
With their latest success, the DOJ will now be free to go after the online gambling merchants mentioned in the statement who themselves were deemed to have violated federal law in their connection with Firepay.