Earlier this month, we announced that the Everleaf Gaming Network had shut down its US operations after receiving a cease and desist order from the United States Department of Homeland Security. For the past few weeks, Everleaf remained quiet regarding the situation. However, the company recently decided to make a statement.
On February 9, 2012, all US based players were prohibited from using any of the more than 100 skins offered by Everleaf.
Everleaf has attempted to clear the air by offering the following statement:
As has been reported, certain funds maintained by one of our payment processors to be distributed to U.S. customers were seized by U.S. authorities. To our knowledge, the U.S. authorities seized these funds and blocked the transactions based on purported violations of certain U.S. laws, including operating an illegal money transmitting business, the Wire Act, and money laundering. Evidence relative to the subject can be reviewed from the attached papers.
Please be advised that this seizure occurred in the United States and only affects U.S. players.
In view of the above, Everleaf will no longer accept U.S. players. Nonetheless, Everleaf reiterates and wants to reassure all the effected players that all the funds will be refunded in full and the effected parties will be contacted in a short while accordingly.
For the other markets we operate in and with regards to all our other players we want to reassure you that nothing has changed and thank you for the continued business with our Company.
We sincerely apologize for the lack of communication to date, but as a Company we were still trying to find our feet and assessing the situation at hand and how to best protect the interest of all the effected parties.
After reading this release, you probably have a couple of questions on your mind:
- How much money in total does Everleaf owe US players?
- How many total players are owed money?
- How is the money going to be refunded?
Although Everleaf has continually stated that the company will cover all player funds, to this point there is nothing concrete suggesting that this is going to happen in the near future.