Friday 08 December 2017
Guernsey has today announced during a visit to the Department of Justice in Washington D.C. that it will share with the United States government approximately $14.3 million recovered while assisting U.S. prosecutors and investigators with two U.S. criminal cases in which money was laundered via Guernsey.
The $14.3 million represents one half of the net proceeds recovered in Guernsey, stemming from the two U.S. criminal cases. The other half of the confiscated assets will be retained by Guernsey under the US/Guernsey Asset Sharing Agreement made in 2015 between the respective governments.
Guernsey Attorney General (H.M. Procureur) Megan M.E. Pullum, Q.C., and Solicitor General (H.M. Comptroller) Robert M. Titterington, Q.C., made the announcement during a visit with officials of the Department of Justice's Criminal Division.
H.M Procureur Megan Pullum Q.C. said:
"This case illustrates the dedication and persistence of Guernsey law enforcement authorities in working with overseas authorities and in successfully bringing a case to conclusion despite the process taking several years. It is an excellent example of successfully tracing and identifying proceeds of crime across jurisdictions and of repatriating such proceeds. Guernsey has an ongoing and exemplary commitment to international co-operation and mutual legal assistance and we are therefore extremely pleased to announce this asset share."
M. Kendall Day, Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General, said:
"We are delighted that your many years of work on our behalf on these two cases is now resulting in the first-ever asset sharing from Guernsey to the United States, and also the second asset sharing to take place under the new permanent sharing agreement we signed together in 2015."
Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Day was joined by Deborah L. Connor, Acting Chief of the Department's Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section, which administers the Department of Justice's international asset sharing program.
The Department of the Treasury shared more than $2 million with Guernsey in 2016 in the first use of the permanent sharing agreement. The Department of Justice and the Department of the Treasury together have shared a combined total of $2.56 million with Guernsey in five cases since 1994. The permanent sharing agreement, in force since February 2015, created a more direct and efficient process for sharing assets between Guernsey and the United States.
Guernsey, as a significant offshore financial centre, has long been a reliable partner with the United States in the areas of anti-money laundering and forfeiture cooperation.
Most of the funds being transferred from Guernsey - approximately $14.3 million - stem from Guernsey's cooperation in connection with the prosecution of defendant Raymond Bitar and his associates by the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Because the FBI is the seizing agency in the case, the shared funds will be deposited into the Department of Justice Assets Forfeiture Fund.
In April 2013, Raymond Bitar pleaded guilty to unlawful internet gambling and conspiracy to commit bank fraud and wire fraud. He admitted to defrauding customers of his Full Tilt Poker operation by lying to them about the security of their funds held by Full Tilt Poker, and by falsely promising players that their funds would be protected in segregated accounts. Instead, Bitar and his accomplices used players' funds for whatever purposes that Bitar directed, including to pay him and others millions of dollars and to cover the operating expenses of Full Tilt Poker. Ultimately, Full Tilt operated what was nothing more than a pyramid scheme. When it collapsed, Full Tilt was unable to pay players approximately $350 million that it owed to them. In connection with his plea and sentencing, Bitar agreed to forfeit $40 million dollars in money and other property derived from his offenses.
Between November 2012 and June 2015, U.S. prosecutors sent a series of three Mutual Legal Assistance requests to the Guernsey authorities seeking their assistance with the tracing, restraint, forfeiture and recovery of those laundered proceeds. In response to those requests, the Guernsey authorities restrained relevant bank accounts, provided bank records that facilitated the U.S. investigation and forfeiture, and ultimately gave effect to the final U.S. judgment of forfeiture and liquidated the accounts.
The remaining funds to be shared by Guernsey - totalling about $1.17 million - stemmed from the prosecution of defendant Paul Hindelang and his associates by the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida. Hindelang was a large-scale importer of Colombian marijuana into the United States during the 1970s and 1980s. Similar to the Bitar case, Guernsey's assistance in connection the Hindelang case ultimately included the registration and enforcement of a U.S. judgment of forfeiture against assets that were laundered via Guernsey and the liquidation of those assets.
