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According to the Daily Record newspaper, reporting on the introduction of the new Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section on August 18, it is led by a Justice Department veteran and US Attorney named Rod J. Rosenstein and comprises a reshuffled group of three prosecutors and two paralegals.

The US Attorney’s office said the general objective of the section was “to go after the fruits and instrumentalities of crime,” a task that apparently now includes online gambling transactions.

The newspaper reported that Richard Kay, a longtime prosecutor who has coordinated asset forfeiture in the major crimes section in Baltimore for much of his 19-year tenure, and Christen Sproule, a government lawyer in the Greenbelt office, are the other attorneys specialising in forfeiture and restitution.

The group will pursue both criminal and civil forfeiture actions – a powerful weapon for federal prosecutors because the civil standard of proof is only a preponderance of the evidence, not beyond a reasonable doubt.

In a civil forfeiture proceeding, anybody who stakes a claim to the money has an obligation to prove where it came from, Rosenstein said when the unit was launched. Silence can be used against you in a civil matter in a way it can’t in a criminal matter, he added.

Rosenstein said that the new section will work with state and local law enforcement as well, a partnership that those offices “should be excited about because federal forfeiture authority is much broader than that of the state and because a substantial share of the assets recovered will be returned to the local agency.”

The Daily Record has also revealed that the new group will also oversee the review of Suspicious Activity Reports submitted by financial institutions to the IRS and other federal agencies. Rosenstein called the reports a tremendous source of intelligence that have heretofore been under-utilised.

Casella came in for special mention by Rosenstein, who described him as one of the leading national experts on asset forfeitures with a broad perspective on how such programs are run across the country and a specialist who has published on the topic.

Rounding out the group are paralegals LaTonia Kelly and Naquita Ervin.

Unconfirmed reports are that agents using ‘sting’ tactics have been involved in the unit’s investigations into specific online casinos, using their membership to ‘follow the money trail’ and target processors.

The lucky player is a regular at Bet365, having joined five months ago, and thought she would try her luck on one of the site’s slot games when she checked out some big wins on the Lucky Ladies 88 Progressive Jackpot.

Efpraxia plans to buy a brand new car and treat herself to a celebratory drink or two, she told Bet365 managers.

VirWoX is using Neovia’s Neteller e-wallet to empower users of the Second Life virtual world to trade Linden dollars with real world currencies. Second Life users have exchanged more than 1.6 billion Linden dollars using VirWoX since its foundation in December 2007.

Second Life has its own synthetic economy, in which users of the virtual world trade, buying and selling items using its virtual currency, Linden dollars.

Using the VirWoX exchange and the Neteller e-wallet, consumers can now conveniently buy or sell Linden dollars, exchanging them for Euros, US dollars, Swiss francs or UK pounds sterling. They can also use Neovia’s Net+ MasterCard to spend the Linden dollars they have exchanged at any retail outlet that accepts cards, or to withdraw cash from any ATM worldwide.

“We chose to work with Neovia because its combination of the Neteller e-wallet and Net+ card is attractive to Second Life users, giving them an easy way of exchanging Linden dollars and spending them in the real world,” said Iliana Suppan, Managing Director at VirWoX.

“Neovia has made the integration in Second Life straightforward for us – when users access our currency exchange via an ATM in the virtual world, there is no need for them to be redirected, unlike competitive payment platforms.”

Dan Starr, Executive Vice President of Sales, Marketing and Products at Neovia, said: “The combination of our Neteller e-wallet and the free Net+ card, removes all commerce barriers between the virtual and the real life and is the ideal solution for VirWoX’s customers to easily exchange virtual currency for hard cash. With Neovia, Second Life users in over 160 countries can now fund their VirWoX account with credit cards and local payment options including Maestro, Carte Bleue, CartaSi, GiroPay, iDEAL and Ukash.”

PKR’s development team confirmed that Mac users are now able to download and run the poker client on Intel based Apple machines running Leopard or Snow Leopard operating systems. The Mac version was enabled using TransGaming’s Cider portability engine and is available for free download on the site.

The Mac release sports all the features of the Windows-based version including the embedded casino mini-games which can be played at any time while logged into the client.

PKR.com CEO Malcolm Graham said, “We are delighted to bring our award-winning software to Apple Mac users – who account for more than ten percent of the home computer market. With our community always at the forefront of our minds, we’ve moved in response to popular demand from some of our fan base who were, until now, unable to play PKR on their systems.”

“Derrick Watts, 39, of the 1500 block of Eckart Street, had not been arrested Monday night.

“Police say that between March 11 and March 30, Watts passed fake poker chips at the business at 4608 Parnell Ave., court records state. Watts reportedly told police his scheme was to keep $200 for every $1,000 he obtained by cashing the fake chips. Police said an employee of the business estimated the chips were cashed in for $18,000…”

The 20-room hotel and museum in downtown Boulder City is three months behind on its mortgage and last-minute appeals for money from the local government failed.

That leaves operators no choice but to shut down at midnight, which means the 76-year-old hotel, restaurant and museum will become a dark spot in the middle of Boulder City’s historic district.

It also will leave 22 mostly part-time workers without jobs and two on-site caretakers looking for a new place to live.

“I got a 30-day notice, too,” said innkeeper Roger Shoaff who, along with his wife, Roseanne, runs day-to-day operations on behalf of the Boulder City Museum and Historical Association.

Some independent small businesses and offices inside will remain open for now.

The nonprofit association that owns the property hopes to raise $250,000 by Sept. 10 to reopen the property.

But Shoaff was planning to lay off staff, close the restaurant and shutter the guest rooms by midnight.

The two-story, white-brick structure, with 10 stately wood columns and green trim, originally opened in 1933, two years before Hoover Dam was complete.

In addition to housing famous guests such as James Cagney, Bette Davis and Howard Hughes, the property houses much of Boulder City’s past as well in the form of journals, personal photographs, tools and supplies related to the construction of Hoover Dam — the Great Depression-era edifice that altered the flow of the Colorado River, brought electricity and reliable irrigation supplies to much of the desert Southwest and put Boulder City on the map.

Those treasures, as Shoaff calls the artifacts, and the fact the hotel serves as a tourist attraction and community gathering place for Boulder City cultural events, aren’t enough to keep the property viable through the current recession.

The hotel-museum has about $8,000 in monthly mortgage obligations, Shoaff said, and the occupancy rate has fallen from about 68 percent to 57 percent since the national economy went into a tailspin last year.

The historical association sought to raise private money before turning, unsuccessfully, to Boulder City’s redevelopment agency on Monday to ask for about $135,000.

The group is also seeking grants from the federal government, but now that it is 90 days past-due on the mortgage, foreclosure appears imminent.

“We can’t compare ourselves to a casino that can give away a room for $9 and make money from other things,” said Shoaff of the historic property’s niche in the marketplace.

Shoaff and others say characterizing their request to the city as a ploy to prop up a business with government money is unfair.

They say the hotel is merely one asset of a beloved local institution that has seen other sources of funding, such as grants from Clark County, dry up in hard times.

“That is really what I find offensive, this isn’t about making a multimillion-dollar mortgage payment or paying off big bondholders,” said Michael Green, a history professor at College of Southern Nevada.

Green, who was married at the hotel, said it appears the fate of the property has become mired in local politics. He said the Boulder City community has the resources to step in and keep the property viable.

“There are enough residents there to put something forward that they should be ashamed of themselves if they don’t,” Green said.

So far, though, there hasn’t been enough political momentum to rescue the hotel and keep the museum open.

The redevelopment agency deadlocked 2-2 Monday on a vote to provide a loan that would carry it through the summer.

“I think they really dropped the ball there,” said redevelopment agency and City Council member Travis Chandler, who voted against the loan proposal. “Maybe it needs new management, a fresh perspective.”

Chandler said he didn’t consider the merits of the hotel and museum when he cast his vote because, as far as he was concerned, it is improper for a redevelopment agency to fund ongoing operations.

“This is simply a question of getting past the law,” he said.

Cam Walker, another member of the redevelopment agency and the City Council, has a different take. He voted in favor of the loan and said politics is at play.

“It goes back to a decision of elected officials,” Walker said. “Our motion was not to be throwing money around because someone asked.”

Meanwhile, the hotel and museum is set to close and the cost to preserve it as-is keeps growing.

Shoaff said depending on how long it is closed, there could be new costs for business licenses and health code obligations.

The South African Team’s preparations, training and attendance at the ISA World Surfing Games will be supported by a R400,000 grant from the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund (NLDTF). Since 2004 the NLDTF have supported all the South African teams which have competed in ISA World Junior Championships, ISA World Surfing Games and ISA World Masters Championships.

The 2009 South African Surfing Team consists of four Men, two Women, two male Longboarders, three coaches and a manager.

The Men’s team comprises three new caps in Brandon Jackson (Durban), Rudy Palmboom (Bluff) and Damien Fahrenfort (Durban), who are the highest ranked available South Africans on the ASP World Qualifying Series ratings. All three have represented South Africa at ISA World Junior Championship level.

The fourth member of the team is 2008 SA Team captain Ryan Payne (Cape St Francis) who qualified for the team after winning the trials held during the South African Championships ten days ago. Llewellyn Whittaker (Mossel Bay) is the non-travelling reserve.

The Women team members are Rosanne Hodge, South Africa’s only representative on the ASP Women’s World Tour, and fellow East London surfer Nikita Robb, who is currently ranked 10th on the ASP World Qualifying Series.

Hodge last competed in the ISA World Games in 2006 where she won a bronze medal for South Africa. This is the first World Games selection for Robb, who has represented South Africa at the ISA World Junior Championships four times. Tarryn Chudleigh (Kommetjie) is the non-travelling reserve.

The two Longboarders who will travel to Costa Rica are current South African Longboard champion Justin Bing (Noordhoek) and his runner up Michael Hill (Cape St Francis) who both earn their first caps. Mike Sheppard has been appointed Team Manager and he will be supported by legendary Head Coach Graham Hynes, Deputy Coach Ant Brodowicz and Assistant/Technical coach Kevin Olsen.

Sheppard was the Manager of the 2008 SA Team, Hynes has been coaching surfers and national surfing teams since the early 1970′s, Brodowicz coached the 2007 and 2008 SA Masters Teams which won the ISA World Masters Championships and Olsen was one of the coaches of the 2002 and 2004 South African teams and the coach of the 2008 SA Team at the ISA World Games in Portugal last year.

Cyril Nel (East London) has been appointed by the ISA as one of two Head Judges for the event and Sandile Mqadi has been included on the international judging panel.

Surfing South Africa is recognised by the SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC), Sport and Recreation South Africa (SRSA) and the International Surfing Association (ISA) as the official governing body for the sport of surfriding in South Africa.

Six provincial organisations and three national associations are affiliated to Surfing South Africa which coordinates and manages all aspects of surfriding from grass roots level through to the selection of National teams.