The Bodogheadlines continue to stream in. On Tuesday morning in the United States, eGamingReview (EGR) reported that Bodog founder Calvin Ayre (pictured) has been indicted. EGR explained, “A Federal grand jury has indicted parent company Bodog Entertainment Group S.A., and four individuals, for conducting an illegal sports betting business and conspiracy to commit money laundering.” The news came about 12 hours after the U.S. Department of Homeland Security seized Bodog’s dot-com domain name. Read the indictment.

This time around, the DOJ targeted Bodog’s Ayre, James Philip, David Ferguson, and Derrick Maloney. The indictment read that the four individuals “did knowingly and unlawfully conduct, finance, manage, supervise, direct, and own all or part of an illegal gambling business, to wit, a gambling business involving online sports betting, which gambling business was in violation of the laws of the state of Maryland.”

Online poker is not mentioned by name anywhere in the indictment.

According to the Baltimore Sun, an ex-Bodog employee aided the Feds and “told authorities that Bodog has hundreds of employees located in Canada and Costa Rica who handle the daily operations of taking bets, tracking sports events, customer service, website development, advertising, and financial transactions.” The same source informed authorities about Bodog’s management.

On the money laundering charges, Government officials asserted, “Members of the conspiracy communicated with payment possessors located in the United States and elsewhere and directed those payment processors to send funds by wire and by check to gamblers located in Maryland and elsewhere.” The legal filing singles out several payment processors, including JBL Services, which allegedly processed $43 million for Bodog, and Zip Payments, which handled $57 million in transactions.

The notice calls for the forfeiture of “any and all property constituting, or derived from, any proceeds obtained, directly or indirectly, as a result of that offense, and all property traceable to such property, and all interest and proceeds traceable thereto.”

EGR reported that the money laundering charges carry up to 20-year sentences, while the illegal gambling charges carry up to five-year sentences.

U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein commented in a statement that appeared in the Baltimore Sun on Tuesday, “Sports betting is illegal in Maryland, and Federal law prohibits bookmakers from flouting that law simply because they are located outside the country. Many of the harms that underlie gambling prohibitions are exacerbated when the enterprises operate over the internet without regulation.”

The indictment purports that the four defendants moved money from countries like the United States, Switzerland, England, Malta, and Canada. The Bodog brand jettisoned the U.S. market in mid-December and has since been replaced by Bovada.lv, run by the Canadian-based Morris Mohawk Gaming Group. BodogBrand.com has continued to operate Bodog outside of the United States.

On Monday night, U.S. Homeland Security seized Bodog.com, even though that URL had been largely inoperative in recent months. U.S. authorities followed that up by indicting Ayre and company on Tuesday. The investigation reportedly centers on bets made between June 2005 and January 2012, according to the indictment handed down on Tuesday. Other poker news sites reported that Ayre had been under investigation since 2003.

On TwoPlusTwo, posters were buzzing about the indictment of Ayre, the vocal founder of Bodog who appeared on the cover of Forbes magazine in 2006. One member of the community wrote, “We are already cornered and beaten down, isn’t that enough? It boggles my mind that money and other resources are being put into stopping online poker. Our government can be such a laughing stock sometimes.”

Sites on the Merge Gaming Network and Cake Poker Network, among others, continue to service the U.S. market. Both Cake Poker and Lock Poker have migrated their businesses to dot-eu domains, while Carbon Poker is perched on a dot-ag domain. Bovada can be found on a dot-lv extension.

PocketFives does not recommend playing online poker on sites offering rake-based games in the United States. Your money may be at risk. We feel more comfortable recommending no-rake sites such as HogWild Poker.

Stay tuned to PocketFives for more on this developing story.