The NETeller saga is beginning to unfold, as a major breakthrough occurred yesterday, July 18th.  NETeller announced that they have entered into an agreement (a Deferred Prosecution Agreement) with the US Attorney’s Office.  NETeller is pleased that they have come to an agreement so that they can move forward with their day to day operations.

"Our customers, employees, and shareholders have all patiently waited for this resolution. We anticipate within the next few weeks that we will have fully implemented the plan for the return of funds to our US customers and are hopeful that, by that time, we will have restored the company's shares to trading on AIM. We can now begin to refocus our efforts on building and strengthening the Neteller business in the growing markets of the European and Asia Pacific regions. I look forward to sharing further information about the company's progress over the coming months." Shared Ron Martin, NETeller’s president and CEO in a press release.  

The DPA (the Deferred Prosecution Agreement) states that as long as NETeller complies with the set of conditions outlined within it, throughout the two year term of the agreement, the USAO will defer the prosecution of all federal charges and NETeller will, luckily, not be charged with any Federal Crimes.  

The main conditions of the DPA are as follows,

Firstly, the UK based company agreed to pay the United Stated a total of $136 million.  The amount is to be paid in three installments by January 17 2008, one of which includes the $60 million that the USAO had already seized.  

Another met condition was that NETeller admit that they had went forth with operations in the US and ran an unlicensed money transferring service that unlawfully assisted in transactions between US citizens and Internet gambling merchants.  

NETeller has also had to agree to fully cooperate with authorities in regards to any ongoing investigations via the US Attorneys Office.

And finally, the company has agreed that they will put into practice the procedures that it will take in order to prevent any illegal transactions that may occur amid US citizens and Internet gambling merchants.  They will also continue to use a forensic accounting firm to monitor that they comply with these procedures.

As Martin mentioned, this agreement is also good news for all the patient US clients of  NETeller, who, according to the press release, will be able to log into their NETeller accounts and withdraw their formerly frozen funds no later than July 30 of this year.  NETeller will contact these persons via email or with info on their website, citing an exact date that these transactions can begin to occur.