Utah Zion Bank Involved in Illegal Online Poker Payments?

Zion Bank in Utah is reported to be under federal investigation on allegations of processing "tens of millions" of dollars in illegal online poker payments in the mid-2000s. According to the court documents filed by the federal authorities, a local businessman John Scott Clark was allegedly involved in the illegal operations and he used the bank's services to transmit around $150 million to various accounts overseas. Clark is also accused of operating an illegal Ponzi scheme, in which the investors were promised sky-high returns while Clark was actually using their money for personal projects, Securities and Exchange Commission's Salt lake City office says. "Clark recruited new investors through referrals from earlier investors who thought the Ponzi payments they received were actual returns on their investments, and sought to share the lucrative opportunity with family and business associates,” SEC official Ken Israel explained. As per court reports, Clark pleaded guilty last year to four charges of conspiracy and obstruction of justice related to processing of millions of dollars from illegal payments to online poker companies. He was sentenced in December to time served - around a week following his arrest back in 2009. It may also be assumed based on the court documents that Clark is cooperating with federal investigators in the online payment processing case. Furthermore, there are certain indications that Zion may have handled accounts involving Jeremy Johnson, whose name was mentioned also in previous processing cases. Zion Bank spokesman notified the public that investigations are underway, emphasizing that the bank takes steps at substantial cost to prevent illegal or fraudulent use of the bank services. "Obviously we process millions of transactions, and there are situations that develop over time where we perhaps have given customers the benefit of the doubt and, in retrospect, perhaps that trust was misplaced," he said. The federal authorities fined Zion Bank with $8 million in 2011 for failing to properly monitor foreign customers who performed wire transfers to Latin America between 2006 and 2008 in the amount of $7.9 billion.