A VIP compliance scandal has rocked online betting giant 888. The CEO is now out.
888 announced that Itai Pazner, chief executive officer and executive director, is immediately leaving office as CEO and as a director. The firm’s non-executive chair, Lord Mendelsohn, is assuming the position of executive chair on an interim basis while the board searches for a permanent CEO.
“On behalf of the board, I would like to thank Itai for his significant contributions to the business over more than 20 years, including the last four as CEO,” Mendelsohn said in a statement. “Itai has played a very important role in building a business with powerful proprietary technology and has overseen successful early stages of the William Hill integration process. We wish him well in his future endeavors.”
On the heels of that announcement, the online gambling operator announced the suspension of VIP activities in certain of its .com markets pending the outcome of an internal compliance investigation.
“Following an internal compliance review, it has come to light that certain best practices have not been followed in regard to KYC (Know Your Client) and AML (Anti-Money Laundering) processes for 888 VIP customers in the Middle East region,” the company said.
“While further internal investigations are underway, the Board has taken the decision to suspend VIP customer accounts in the region, effective immediately. The Board currently estimates that the impact is less than 3% of Group revenues should the suspensions remain in place. Based on the Board’s current understanding, the process deficiencies identified are isolated to this region only.”
Mendelsohn added: “The Board and I take the Group’s compliance responsibilities incredibly seriously. When we were alerted to issues with some of 888’s VIP customers, the Board took decisive actions. We will be uncompromising in our approach to compliance as we build a strong and sustainable business.”
Shares of the company were down around 20% on the news.
