Tuesday, February 20, 2007

US Department of Justice delays Neteller case

The case against Neteller founders John Lefebvre and Steven Lawrence has been delayed for a month after the US Department of Justice failed to issue an indictment earlier this week, while the company has announced Canadian and UK job losses in a restructuring plan.

Though a date was set for 14 February for Lawrence and Lefebvre’s preliminary hearing, and the clerk of the federal courthouse at Pearl St New York confirmed the defendant’s names were on the schedule, a judge has yet to be assigned.

Yusill Scribner, spokesperson for the District Attorney Southern District of New York, told eGaming Review that by the close of business on 14 February the government had either to have returned an indictment, set a date for a preliminary hearing, or ask for more time to do so, and that a delay of at least 30 days was anticipated.

A deadline for an indictment to be filed has now been extended until 16 March.
Neteller said today that as a result of its withdrawal from the US market, it is to restructure its US and UK offices reducing the number of staff from over 1,000 at its peak in 2006, to 425 across Europe, America and Asia-Pacific.

A statement said Neteller has: “substantially completed the necessary reorganisation and restructuring of its operations to reduce its headcount and align related costs with anticipated revenues of its worldwide business.”

It has focused its restructuring on the Calgary head office, where around 220 jobs are to be lost from all levels. In the UK, Neteller is to move its Gatwick base to Cambridge, with around 30 redundancies by the end of March.

Ron Martin, group president and chief executive said: “The events of the past months have led to challenging times for the group and the board has taken these measures to ensure the group has a sustainable business going forward.

“We would like to thank all of our employees who have contributed to the growth of the Neteller business over the past few years, and for those who have left or will be leaving the group, we wish you well for the future.”

Trading in Neteller’s shares on the Aim market continues to be suspended.

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