Feds seek to shutdown online bank service

Published: June 3, 2007 at 3:48 PM

Feds seek to shutdown online bank service

NEW YORK, June 3 (UPI) -- The U.S. Secret Service wants to shutdown a secretive online banking system allegedly used by crooks and terrorists to launder money.

Federal agents also allege e-gold.com let anonymous lawbreakers buy child pornography online and bilked Americans with credit card scams, the New York Daily News reported Sunday.

E-gold's founders were indicted last month on charges of money laundering and illegally "operating a money transmitting business," the newspaper reported. Federal agents seized more than $16 million from e-gold and 60 allegedly criminal accounts.

E-gold, which has affiliates in Iran, Syria and other Persian Gulf states, may have been used by terrorists to move cash among operatives, unnamed federal agents told the Daily News.

E-gold officials have denied any illegal operations.