They Want Their Money Back
July 15, 2009
The Poker Players Alliance is seeking to have the money returned to the
poker players that was seized by the federal government. The PPA is an
advocacy group for poker players, and when the government seized more than
$30 million from online poker players’ accounts they were outraged.
Account Services Corp. of San Diego made a request to the federal judges
asking them to return $14 million of that money for the poker players, and
the PPA is fighting along side them. They claim that the federal government
took the money illegally and that they should return it immediately. They
say that the actions that the government has perpetrated on the poker
players are not just illegal but they are wrong as well and they are there
to stand up for them.
The PPA says that they are going to step forward to ensure that “their
members’ voices are heard and their rights are protected.” The case states
that the prosecutors took $13.3 million in a Wells Fargo account in
Escondido, California and $1 million from two accounts at Union Bank in San
Diego. They say that the Wells Fargo accounts had a warrant but that the
Union Bank accounts did not.
The government says that as online poker playing is illegal they had the
right to take that money, and that there were “exigent circumstances” that
require that the money is frozen immediately. They did not have the warrant
for Union Bank however, until two weeks after they seized the money.
Account Services says that since their company, the poker players, and the
banks did not break any laws that the government does not have the right to
take the money.
