This post initially recommended that the ICIJ data reported below was part of the so-called Panama Papers. In truth, the data is from an earlier cache of 2.5 m leaked files examined and released by the ICIJ. Regardless, this information has handled new relevance given the AMF expert trading investigation, and we stand by its newsworthiness.
He is not related to nor associated with either of these people. CalvinAyre.com has actually eliminated this reference from the short article.
So-called offshore information files released by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) contain possible links to the expert trading scandal involving Canadian online gambling operator Amaya Gaming.
The ICIJ, which just recently launched 11.5 m private files belonging to Panamanian industrial provider Mossack Fonseca, previously published files that may factor into the expert trading charges laid versus Amaya Gaming CEO David Baazov last month by Quebec securities regulator Autorit des march’s financiers (AMF), which fasted David to reveal last week that he was taking an indefinite leave of absence while the brouhaha played itself out.
Amongst the companies noted in the ICIJ files is Zhapa Holdings Inc, a British Virgin Islands business whose master customer is noted as IMF Network, a company based in Amaya’s business home of Montreal, Quebec. Among Zhapa’s noted investors are Goulissa Baazov, whom Canada’s Globe & Mail paper identified as the sis of David and his older sibling Ofer Baazov aka Josh Baazov.
Likewise listed as a Zhapa shareholder is Isam Mansour, one of the 13 individuals whose stock trading opportunities were revoked by the AMF after it identified suspicious trading patterns connected to several Amaya business deals going back to 2010.
WHAT ARE THE ODDS (MAKER)?
Zhapa.com appears to be defunct, however it utilized to pitch itself as a leading carrier for inexpensive online internet charge card processing merchant represent both Low Risk and High Risk merchants, (the latter classification more commonly called online gambling sites).
Online computer registries note a variety of gambling sites hosted on Zhapa.com’s DNS server, consisting of BetonUSA.com, the US-facing online sports book owned by Josh and his partner Craig Levett till the pair declared to have actually offered their interests following the United States government s 2006 passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA).
Other websites related to Zhapa include Oddsmaker.ag, another notorious slow/no-pay US-facing sports book that launched following the UIGEA, and Odds maker’s affiliate site Referincome.com. Both Josh and Levett were originally rumored to be linked with Odds maker however someone claiming to be Levett informed Bookmakers Review in 2007 that he had no connection with the site.
Both Josh and Levett appear along with Isam Mansour on the list of 13 people whose trading privileges were frozen by the AMF. The regulatory authority has actually implicated CEO David of funneling insider information regarding Amaya deals to Josh, who then transmitted stated info to Levett, who passed it on to others while taking part in presumed illegal trades that gained over $1.5 m in profits.
THE AMAYA/BAAZOV/ZHAPA VENN DIAGRAM
Goulissa Baazov was called a Zhapa shareholder at the company s incorporation in January 2007, shortly after her bro Josh and Levett declared to have sold their interests in BetonUSA and around the time that Odds maker debuted on the online betting scene. Mansour joined Zhapa’s shareholder ranks in Nov. 2008.
It stays to be seen whether the AMF or other regulatory agencies checking out Amaya’s insider trading shenanigans will include any of the ICIJ information into their examinations. The hundreds of journalists who have actually been sorting through the Panama Papers have actually promised further discoveries in the weeks and months to come, so see this space.
The possible connection of Amaya to a business that seemed actively processing payments for US-facing online gambling business in defiance of the UIGEA might prove of certain interest to gaming regulators in New Jersey, where Amaya’s provisionary license to operate Pokerstarsnj.com was recently renewed for another six-month period.
TEDDY SAGI DONS HIS PANAMA HAT
In a different crossway of the gambling world and the Panama Papers, Teddy Sagi, creator and biggest investor of online gambling software application powerhouse Playtech, looks like the sole investor of least 16 shell business listed in the Mossack Fonseca files. Sagi did a stint in Israeli jail in the 1990’s after being founded guilty of stock scams.
Israeli paper Haaretz reported that the majority of these 16 businesses seem gotten in touch with Sagi’s considerable commercial realty holdings in London. However, future revelations might suggest some more concrete connection to gambling activities involving Sagi, and presumably a multitude of other industry notables.