[Infowarrior] - Owners of E-Gold indicted for money laundering

[Richard Forno]

Owners of E-Gold indicted for money laundering
Service allegedly popular among child pornographers and other low-lifes
By Dan Goodin in San Francisco → More by this author
Published Tuesday 1st May 2007 01:44 GMT
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/05/01/e-gold_indictment/

Three owners of online payment processor E-Gold and an affiliated company
have been indicted for money laundering and related crimes for allegedly
allowing sellers of child pornography, operators of investment scams and
other types of criminals to send and receive payments related to their
misdeeds.

In addition to E-Gold, the four-count indictment names Gold & Silver Reserve
and company owners Douglas L. Jackson of Satellite Beach, Florida; Reid A.
Jackson of Melbourne, Florida; and Barry K. Downey of Woodbine, Maryland.
They are charged with one count each of conspiracy to launder monetary
instruments, conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting
business, operating an unlicensed money transmitting business under federal
law and money transmission without a license under the District of Columbia.

Prior to the indictment, the defendants had already received a restraining
order preventing them from dispersing assets. The US Department of Justice
had also obtained 24 seizure warrants on more than 58 accounts believed to
be property involved in money laundering and operation of unlicensed money
operation.

According to prosecutors, E-Gold's status as the preferred payment method
from some of Earth's lowest life forms was for good reason. The online
service was purportedly backed by stored physical gold, and all that was
needed to open an account was a valid email address. No other contact
information or background information was necessary.

"Douglas Jackson and his associates operated a sophisticated and widespread
international money remitting business, unsupervised and unregulated by any
entity in the world, which allowed for anonymous transfers of value at a
click of a mouse," said Jeffrey A. Taylor, US Attorney for the District of
Columbia.

Three of the four counts each carry a maximum sentence of five years in
prison. The count for conspiracy to launder money carries a sentence of up
to 20 years.

The indictment is the result of a two-and-a-half year investigation by the
US Secret Service, the Internal Revenue Service and the FBI.