NETELLER, the British money transfer firm, became the latest victim of the US crackdown on online gambling after its two founding members were detained by US authorities on Monday, 15th January 2007. Stephen Lawrence and John Lefebvre were charged with handling money in illegal gambling proceeds and both face a prison sentence of a maximum 20 years. Neither Mr Lawrence nor Mr Lefebvre have any current position with the company, however both former directors hold over 5.5% ordinary shares in the company.

After the arrest NETELLER has issued a notice that it will no longer handle online gambling transactions conducted by its US members. In the statement published on NETELLER website, the company said the non-gambling transfers are unaffected by the recent events.

Online gambling has been banned in November, and although online gaming giants such as PartyGaming and Sportingbet pulled out immediately, some privately owned rivals like Pokerstars, Bodog and Full Tilt Poker continued, often using NETELLER for payment processing.