Looks like law enforcement in Costa Rica has been very busy lately. Not sure of the exact order of the raids but supposedly the Organismo de Investigaciones Judiciales (OIJ) raided the Absolute and UB offices as well as the home of Scott Tom and took Tom’s girlfriend. They even raided the home of Olman Rimola’s (Absolute’s legal representative in Costa Rica) mother [video of raid]. Computers, files, and other items were seized in the raid. Later, I read over at Tao of Pauly that PokerStars’ offices in Costa Rica (why do they have offices in Costa Rica?) were raided. According to the good doctor’s sources the raid on PokerStars was a mistake. The OIJ (which is Costa Rica’s version of the FBI) had warrants for Absolute and UB employees/connected-people (Olman Rimola, Scott Tom, and Brent Beckley) but had the wrong address.
Later, listening to QuadJacks they interviewed AJ Grant, a man who claims to have worked for Absolute and the OIJ previously, basically said that his contacts within the OIJ told him that this was 100% the result of a US FBI request. In fact, reports from Costa Rica seem to indicate that gringos accompanied the OIJ and remained outside and communicated with the OIJ agents.
Dr. Pauly’s sourced informed him that:
“The OIJ left without “taking a single paper or server.”
However, AJ Grant seems to imply that not only did they leave with papers but computers as well. QuadJacks also reports that several PokerStars staff were taken into custody for questioning. This contradicts Pauly’s sources. Pauly didn’t indicate who his source was (for obvious reasons) but it seems far fetched that the OIJ with the help of the FBI raided the wrong office building. Everything else they did from raids on the homes and even the homes of people associated with the three individuals seems very well thought out. To bumble into the PokerStars offices by mistake seems more like a PR spin or what PokerStars might be trying to put out there to calm people’s fears.
A PokerStars release stated:
“Costa Rican officials today visited PokerStars’ customer service centre in Costa Rica in order to review the operations. We co-operated fully with the officials and following their review, the customer service centre was re-opened with the approval of the local authorities.”
This contradicts Pauly’s source as well but does not rule out Grant’s version. I should say that Pauly’s source seemed spot on on many other
As Pauly and others have reported the “excuse” for the raids was due to the fact that it appeared that after laying off 95% of their staff and promising severance packages that UB/Absolute had failed to fund the accounts as they had said they would do in an email to staff. There was also this leaked email supposedly from Olamn Rimola to Paul Leggett.
Hi Paul,
The company always has deposited IDS operational expenses.
The liquidation for all IDS employees is USD$2,750,000.
This amount has not been deposited yet into IDS bank account.If next Tuesday, May 3rd, this amount has not been deposited in IDS bank
account, I will face all IDS employees and I will explain this situation.
After that, I will go to the US Embassy and I will contact FBI agents,
who are right now in Costa Rica, and I will reveal all the information I
have of Absolute Poker and UltimateBet operations, including full detail of
original shareholders, corporate structure, processing procedures, all
related companies, lawyers, executives, bank statements, bank wires,
emails and instructions I have received, etc.
FBI will be more than glad in to grant me immunity exchanging this
information.Just a reminder, if anything happens to me, or people close to me, I
have prepared 3 sets of this information which are in hands of 3 different
lawyers, with instructions to proceed with US Embassy and Costa Rican
authorities.I feel sorry about ending our relationship like this way, but my IDS
employees are first.
Best regards,Olman RÌmola
It’s quite obvious why the FBI would love to get their hands on and have a chat with Mr. Rimola. He’s got the goods on Absolute and UB and I’m sure they would love to offer him protection in exchange for everything he said he knows about Absolute and UB. And he may need that protection. Costa Rica is not too different from Thailand. People can disappear for a relatively small fee. His email to Paul Leggett may have put a price on his head and the FBI would likely want to have him under OIJ protection before someone can get to him.
All of this comes on the heels of UB and Absolute’s parent company Blanca Games denying rumors that it was filing for bankruptcy. However, in more bad news for the company, lastchances on 2+2 posted a message he said he had been asked to post on behalf of someone within UB/Absolute. The details are quite disturbing. Basically, if the message is to be believed, UB/Absolute are planning on setting up a new company with whatever cash is still around and using that money to pay off non-US customers while claiming that the DOJ is preventing them from paying US customers. In other words, they’re going to steal the money from US customers to start up a new network and to pay out non-US players who still have money on the site.
This is yet another twist and turn in the UB/Absolute drama. Expect more to come.