Stephen Lawrence and John Lefebvre, founders of Neteller, the UK-listed online payments company, were last night charged with conspiracy in connection with a multibillion-dollar money laundering scheme linked to internet gambling.

The pair were arrested on Monday after an FBI sting operation discovered that Neteller was being used to allow Americans to place illegal bets on sporting events via internet gambling companies based in foreign countries.

Mr Lawrence, 46, who lives in a luxury home on Paradise Island in The Bahamas, was arrested in the United States Virgin Islands and has been ordered to appear later today in the federal court of St Thomas.

Mr Lefebvre, 55, was arrested at the same time in Malibu, California, and was expected to appear in Los Angeles federal Court last night.

Neither Mr Lawrence nor Mr Lefebvre were available to comment in response to the allegations made in the indictment. If found guilty, the pair face 20 years in jail.

The seven-page indictment, filed in New York last night, claims that the pair set up Neteller in 1999 with the express purpose of providing online payment services to gambling companies. The indictment also claims that between 2000 and 2003 Neteller Inc, a Canadian corporation, offered payment services to various internet gambling companies so that they could illegally access customers in the United States.

From 2004 to the present day, the same operation was conducted by Neteller plc, an Isle of Man-based company which in April 2004 raised some $70 million via a listing on London’s AIM. An agent with the FBI named in the indictment claims she used Neteller as a middle man between her US-based bank account and an offshore internet gambling company.

Shares of Neteller were suspended on AIM yesterday before the indictment was released as the company was seeking clarification of its status with US authorities.

A spokesman for Neteller stressed that the founders were no longer employees or directors of the company. “Because of that, this arrest has nothing to do with the company,” he added.

Mr Lawrence resigned as a non-executive director of the company on October 13, having stepped down as non-executive chairman last May. Mr Lefebvre resigned as a non-executive director on December 15, 2005. However, the pair still own large stakes of Neteller. Mr Lawrence holds 5.91 per cent of the company, while Mr Lefebvre owns 5.54 per cent.

Neteller claims to operate the largest independent online money transfer business in the world with 3 million customers in 160 countries and over $7 billion in annual transactions.

It specialises in providing instant payment services where money transfer is difficult or risky because of issues of identity, trust, currency exchange, or distance. In the past, it handled funds for online gamblers in the US but it is said to have stopped the practice when tough new laws banned internet gambling in America last October.

Last year authorities arrested a number of prominent executives for breaching US gambling laws, including two from Britain. David Carruthers, the former chief executive of BetOnSports, was arrested in July while Peter Dicks, former non-executive chairman of Sportingbet, was arrested in September.

Other arrests

July 2006 David Carruthers, chief executive of BetOnSports, the AIM-listed bookmaker, is arrested in Dallas

Sept 2006 Peter Dicks, then Sportingbet chairman, is arrested at JFK airport in New York, on request of Louisiana state authorities

Sept 2006 Manfred Bodner and Norbert Teufelberger, joint chief executives of Bwin, the Austrian internet betting group, are detained in Monaco on charges of violating France’s internet gaming laws

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