New York - Two Canadian men who founded the U.K.-based online money transfer company Neteller have been arrested by U.S. authorities and charged with laundering billions of dollars in illegal online gambling proceeds.

Stephen Lawrence, 46, and John Lefebvre, 55, both face up to 20 years in prison for allegedly enabling U.S. citizens to gamble online by processing their payments to online casinos and gambling sites. Prosecutors said over 95% of the $7.3 billion that Neteller transacted in 2005 came from online gambling transfers.

Reuters reported that Neteller closed its U.S. Internet gambling services on Thursday, which represented 65% of the company's total business.

Shares of many online gambling firms that do business with the U.S. have tanked in recent months, following earlier arrests by U.S. authorities of executives at online gambling sites BetonSports and Sportingbet.

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/36nf2v (U.S. DOJ statement PDF)
http://tinyurl.com/35jwg5 (Reuters)
http://www.neteller.com