Quote:
Originally Posted by fatshaft
That's not exactly unethical though is it? If the IRS/JD are asking for that info, then Party are being obliged legally to provide it surely? Your supposition that it's tantamount to blackmail is just that, supposition.
Party is not a US company, it could have told Justice to get a subpoena, then try and serve them with it. There is NO obligation otherwise to tell them squat about customers/players/affiliates, and the subpoena possibly could have been quashed under UK pricvacy laws. However, as a horse-trading point, Party may have decided to cough up EX-customer information, damn the privacy issues.
The 'supposition" as you put it is soundly based upon past practices of the DOJ, imcluding their announced policy at the press conference announcing the NetTeller founders' arrests and the terms of numerous similar deals struck in the past.
believe it or not, people in the US on occasion get demands from the Federal Government for money in lieu of prosecution. Every tax attorney also has seen that sort of demand, even when (gasp) the government position is unjustified and plain wrong. Here, the numbers are just bigger and third parties will be ratted out, if this referenced information is accurate.