Christiaan Alexander Van Dalen is a former affiliate manager for Betsson AB, an online gambling operator, who has been accused of stealing money from the company by using his position. Van Dalen had access to commissions and reportedly created fake accounts to take more than €153,000 from the company.

This past week, Van Dalen stood before the court in Malta and plead not guilty to seven charges. The former manager faces charges of fraud, computer related offences and money laundering. Van Dalen was ordered to be held without the possibility of bail by Magistrate Charmaine Galea pending additional hearings.

During the court hearing it was revealed that Van Dalen worked for Betsson as the affiliate manager. The online gambling company is based in Malta. The former manager was accused by Betsson of ‘retagging’ customers of high value as his affiliate client. This gave Van Dalen a percentage of the betting losses of those customers.

€35,000 of the money taken by Van Dalen was reportedly placed in bank accounts in the Philippines that were created in his wife’s name. The remaining €100,000+ cash is nowhere to be found, though prosecutors feel some of the money was used to purchase property located in the Philippines.

The court was asked by prosecutors to freeze the assets of Van Dalen including the accounts of his wife while the investigation was ongoing. Joseph Ellis, the attorney for Van Dalen, stated the request was not proper as the wife was not charged with a crime.

However, the court did not agree and stated it was clear that Van Dalen was controlling his wife’s assets and every bit of Van Dalen’s assets were frozen except €13,000 and the defendant is not allowed to transfer ownership or dispose of any property that he owns. The court is trying to avoid evidence tampering by denying access to information technology facilities to Van Dalen.

Other affiliates of Betsson have been posting in forums, curious as to if the decisions by Van Dalen could explain why big bettors they had sent to Bettsson had disappeared over the past year. The management of Betsson told one affiliate that others were not affected by the behavior of Van Dalen, but some affiliates find this hard to believe.