Federal authorities arrested Michael Olaf Schuett, a German citizen residing in Florida, for suspected laundering of money won at online poker. According to the suspicions, the German man acted as middleman between American poker players and a foreign poker room where American citizens played.

The UIGEA law prohibits U.S. financial institutions to make transactions of money to and from online gambling sites on behalf of American citizens. The fraud perpetrated by Schuett worked like this: the German had opened several bank accounts in Europe where he cashed money coming from players’ winnings, and later he sent these winnings to the players themselves through bank cheque.

The fraud was discovered after suspicions arose at FedEx, where workers noticed an unusually high volume of activity related to Schuett’s firm, MCM Capital Management. After opening a number of parcels sent by Schuett, all containing checks, FedEx called the police to investigate.

Schuett’s money laundering business has been active since 2007. Over the years of activity, Schuett has transferred more than $70 million of online poker winnings, serving more than 23,000 players. The man had created a network of over 420 businesses to make all the money and checks transfers.