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Judge Rules Warrants Unsealed
 
August 14, 2009

It was a big win for the poker players of America this week as the judicial system ruled for them regarding the seizure of poker funds. The federal government had seized almost $40 million from the accounts of online poker players that were held in various banks and had done so in many cases without a current warrant. Some of them had warrants before the seizure and others did not have them until after the money was already frozen.
 
The poker players and their legal representation had said that they wanted to see the warrants, but the government said that they could not show them as they were sealed documents. They said that it was imperative that they not be disclosed and refused to show them – which is why they had to go to court to see if a judge would rule against them.
 
Judge Laura Swain said that the US Attorney for the Southern did not have a compelling reason why the warrants were sealed and therefore they needed to have public copies released. She did say that she understood keeping the names of certain informants confidential and therefore they would remain redacted, but that the rest of the information needed to be put out there.
 
Swain said that she would allow certain areas to remain sealed but that the Department of Justice needed to keep her apprised of the investigation so that she could release the other information when it was time. She said eventually there was much more than could be disclosed to poker players than what they were disclosing now.