On February 28, 2012 Bodog founder and all-around bon vivant, Calvin Ayre was indicted on money laundering charges by the US Department of Justice.
The indictment claimed that Ayre engaged in money laundering by routing player payments through international processors, circumventing US law against sports betting.
Ayre’s reaction to the charges, and the potential prison time that goes along with them, was an emphatic shoulder shrug. In fact, a week after the indictment dropped Ayre posted a video of himself and a fashion model sipping whiskey and shopping for clothes on Savile Row.
In a subsequent editorial on CalvinAyre.com, Ayre was pretty tightlipped about his plans to fight the charges. Shortly after the editorial was posted, Ayre hired one of the top defense attorneys in the United States, Barry Slotnick. Slotnick wasn’t the first schlub Ayre found in the phone book, Slotnick is the guy who represented John “Teflon Don” Gotti and Berhard “Subway Vigilante” Goetz.
That was a year ago and while Ayre is still out there and loving life (mostly in Antigua) reports on the status of his case are all but impossible to find. Even though his blog post, Predictions for the Gambling World in 2013, was rife with jabs at the US Government, those predictions included nary a word about his own situation.
What’s the Current Situation?
We reached out to CalvinAyre.com for an update on Ayre’s case but, so far, haven’t heard back from anyone at the site.
It’s possible that Ayre’s legal team is in negotiation with the DOJ and have advised him to keep quiet until some sort of settlement is reached. For a man who always got something to say about everything, Ayre is uncharacteristically quiet regarding his own legal situation.
What do you think of the Calvin Ayre indictment? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.