No Jailtime For PartyGaming Co-Founder Anurag Dikshit
The co-founder of PartyGaming and one of India’s richest men, Anurag Dikshit, will not have to face jail time after settling with the US government.
The online poker billionaire was sentenced Thursday to one year probation.
Dikshit, 39, arrived in the United States from his home in Gibraltar via a one-way ticket purchase. He pleaded guilty in 2008 to one count of violating the federal wire act and agreed to forfeit $300 million. Dikshit had reached out to US authorities in an effort to negotiate a guilty plea.
“I am persuaded that no jail time is appropriate here,” said U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff.
Two other co-founders in PartyGaming, most notably billionaire Ruth Parasol, have so far declined to settle with the US Government.
Party pulled out of the US market following passage of the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act (UIGEA) in October 2006. At the time, PartyGaming maintained over half the online poker market in the US. Its decision to leave the US resulted in a loss of 80 percent of its overall customer base. But as a testament to how huge this company is, PartyGaming’s PartyPoker online card room continues to be the 4th largest in the world. The company is set to merge with Austria’s Bwin some time in the coming year.
- Aaron Goldstein, Gambling911.com
