Citadel Funds Seized by U.S.

Citadel Commerce, a once popular online payment processor for online poker enthusiasts, announced this week that the United States Department of Justice has seized $9.25 of its funds.  Very few details were divulged by either Citadel Commerce or its parent company, ESI Entertainment systems. 

The announcement is a follow-up to an April 27 statement by the company, which said that the funds were frozen by one of its U.S. processors.  The bulk of the funds belong to internet gaming merchants.  $941,000 belong to Citadel Commerce, itself. 

The following is the press release from Citadel Commerce: 

“ESI Entertainment Systems Inc. (“ESI”) (TSX: ESY) and Citadel Commerce Corp, a wholly owned subsidiary of ESI, today announced that further to the press release dated April 27, 2007 concerning the US$ 9.25 million Merchant Reserve Funds frozen by

its processor in the USA, these funds have now been seized by the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ).

All of these funds are Merchants’ Reserves related to internet gaming except for approximately US$ 941,000 of Citadel’s own capital. 

The company is continuing to work with the DoJ through its legal counsel to resolve the situation.” 

Of course, this hearkens back to when the U.S. DoJ froze millions of dollars in Neteller customer funds back in January 2007.  Those funds have yet to be returned, but Neteller should be announcing a plan within two to three weeks to get those funds back to customers.

Originally published 11:32 PM Saturday, May 19, 2007