ST. LOUIS (CN) - Three internet giants have agreed to $31.5 million in settlements with the United States to resolve claims that they promoted illegal gambling. Microsoft, Google and Yahoo! neither contested nor admitted wrongdoing in their agreements.
Microsoft will pay $21 million. The United States will get $4.5 million. The International Center for Missing and Exploited Children will get $7.5 million to establish a fund to help its national and international missions. Microsoft will spend the other $9 million on an online public service campaign against illegal gambling. The settlement resolves complaints filed against Microsoft between 1997 and June 2007.
Google will pay $3 million to settle claims that it received advertising payments from online gambling businesses between 1997 and June 2007.
Yahoo! will pay $7.5 million to resolve similar claims filed between 1997 and December 2007. The United States will get $3 million; the other $4.5 million will go to a public service campaign to inform gamblers that operators and participants in online or telephonic sports bookmaking and casino-type gambling doing business in the United States are subject to arrest and prosecution.
"These sums add to the over $40 million in forfeitures and back taxes this office has already recovered in recent years from operators of these remote-control illegal gambling enterprises," U.S. Attorney Catherine Hanaway said in a statement. "Honest taxpayers and gambling industry personnel who do follow the law suffer from those who promote illegal online behavior."
Follow @@joeharris_stlSubscribe to Closing Arguments
Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.