Investigation Underway of Western Union for Online Gambling Payments

Recently Western Union was issued with a large number of subpoenas from the |Feds, for documents that relate to online gambling payments. This follows large number of complaints from consumers. Apparently some of the complaints go as far back as 2004, this has been simmering for a while but has recently broken out recently with the investigation under-way. Details that have been revealed, is the fact that a lot of the investigation is focused mostly on a group of Western Union agents in Nicaragua, they say 43 in number. Although Nicaragua is at the centre of this investigation, it is not the only place. Other locations that were mentioned in the Federal subpoenas were, Haiti,Vietnam, Philippines, the Dominican Republic, The Bahamas, Peru, Costa Rica, and Panama. Its not surprising that this investigation ha had a negative impact on the company’s bottom line. For the Q4 2015, Western Union’s profits were down 27% from the previous year it must be noted that increased security measures had an impact as well. Company officials said that the government investigation was ongoing and they expected that there will be further requests for documentation for this investigation. And given the scope of this investigation, it would seem to be a near certainty.