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Intrade.com’s abrupt closure this week has provided the online gambling industry with yet another black eye. The darling of mainstream media, Intrade cited “accounting irregularities” for the shutdown.
Now we are learning that the company’s CEO and founder, John Delaney, was paid millions of dollars at the time of his death in 2011 while attempting to scale Mount Everest.
According to the Financial Times of London, it was discovered that Delaney had been paid $1.2 million in 2010 and $1.4 million in 2011. Monies were transferred into Delaney’s bank accounts “without the proper paperwork”, according to auditors.
From the Financial Times:
The company lost $1.6 million in 2011. Delaney died that May while climbing the world's highest peak (not an inexpensive endeavor). The timeline of the payments isn't clear, though if they all preceded Delaney's death, he averaged more than $280,000 a month in undocumented payments in 2011, compared to $100,000 a month in 2010.
These odd payments may not be the auditors' only concerns. The auditor's report was released on February 4 — more than a month before InTrade announced its closure — and it suggested that Caulfield Dunne had "not obtained all the information and explanations we consider necessary" to complete the audit.
- Aaron Goldstein, Gambling911.com
