Calvin Ayre charges dropped by U.S. officials
News on 15 Jul 2017
News on 15 Jul 2017
In what appears to be a settlement with the US government, all charges against Canadian online gambling entrepreneur and Bodog founder Calvin Ayre have been dropped.
Reporting on the development, Ayre’s own website recalls that in February 2012 Ayre and three other individuals were indicted by the US Attorney fo the District of Maryland on charges of illegal gambling and money laundering conspiracy.
These were associated with the Bodog brand and allegations that gambling services were offered to US punters over a six-year period ended 2012.
US officials claimed that over $100 million was sent to US customers by Bodog and its payment processors.
However, none of the allegations were ever tested in a court, as neither Bodog nor the four individuals named in the indictment ever appeared before a judge, and the case remained dormant.
The charges against the three individuals named with Ayre in the indictment were reportedly dismissed recently as well.
Today (July 14) it appears that a settlement was formalised when Chief Judge Catherine Blake of the United States District Court for the District of Maryland accepted a resolution that dismissed all felony charges against Ayre and Bodog.
Elements of the deal included:
* The well-established Bodog brand, which had been forfeited to the US government, has been returned without restrictions to friends of Ayre for a payment of $100,000;
* The US government will retain the $67 million it seized from bank accounts belonging to third party payment processors.
Calvinayre.com notes that neither Ayre or Bodog made any claim to these funds, which belonged primarily to US gamblers, and that Bodog “…immediately made whole any of its customers who were impacted by the US government’s confiscation of online gambling funds.”
Ayre, who has been resident for some time on Antigua, where Bodog is still licensed, commented on settlement:
“I don’t see this settlement changing anything, as I’m happy with my life the way it is. I’ll continue to focus on being an online gaming industry analyst, a tech investor and a philanthropist. But most importantly, I’m just going to continue enjoying life to the fullest.”
UPDATE
The publication Forbes.com has published more detail on the US government’s abandonment of serious felony charges against online gambling entrepreneur and Bodog founder Calvin Ayre (56), reporting that the settlement included a guilty plea to the far less serious misdemeanour offence of being an accessory after the fact in the transmission of gambling information.
Forbes reports that Ayre entered his plea before a Baltimore federal court Friday in a phone call from his legal representative’s offices in Vancouver, ending five years of living under the threat of US prosecution.
After accepting the plea, federal judge Catherine Blake confirmed that the felony charges had been dropped and sentenced Ayre to one year of unsupervised probation. She also approved the unrestricted release from government forfeiture of the Bodog brand on payment of $100,000.
