Sports betting is strictly controlled in the US, but legal in
the UK. Intercash Ltd. I.O.M. and American Sports Ltd. are licensed
gambling businesses in the Isle of Man and England respectively.
They advertised to Americans on the web and insisted that their
businesses were legal to use since all bets were “placed” in the
UK, albeit the sporting events were mostly US professional and
college football and basketball games and payment was made to a New
Jersey account. The New Jersey company was needed to maintain the
local bank account, accepting wire transfers from US gamblers and
transferring them abroad.
Judge Theodore McKee wrote:
“American courts have jurisdiction ‘over
proscribed acts done in this country’ that have the required nexus
to activities elsewhere. We therefore find no merit in [the]
jurisdictional challenge to this [action] proceeding over New
Jersey property based upon conduct occurring in New Jersey. It may
well be true that British citizens and British companies will be
affected by this [action] in New Jersey. This does not mean that
the law of New Jersey or the law of the United States is being
applied to those citizens or companies.”
Judge McKee granted the US Government the authority to seize
funds from the New Jersey company after it showed that the “the
forfeiture action is predicated solely upon conduct that occurred
in New Jersey. [The English and Isle of Man companies] are
therefore actually arguing that the laws of England insulate them
from forfeiture based upon their conduct in New Jersey. We reject
that argument.”
The Isle of Man, Antigua and the Seychelles last week dropped
out of the OECD’s list of official "tax havens" after agreeing to
greater transparency. The 30-member Organisation for Economic
Co-operation and Development de-listed the islands along with 32
other former tax havens.
There are now only seven remaining havens that will not
co-operate in the OECD’s drive to improve rules on disclosure of
information to tax officials in other nations: Andorra,
Liechtenstein, Liberia, Monaco, the Marshall Islands, Nauru and
Vanatu. Countries refusing to meet OECD standards could face
financial sanctions from April 2003.
