Reporting from Zak Thomas-Akoo and Sonja Lindenberg.
The live casino giant prevailed in the New Jersey Supreme Court on Friday (3 October), with the court denying both Black Cube’s motion for leave to file an appeal and the motion for a stay.
As such, last week Black Cube — the controversial Israeli private intelligence firm that compiled the original 2021 report — ran out of road and was forced to either release the name of its secret client or be found in contempt of court.
Speaking to NEXT.io about the victory, Evolution chief executive Martin Carlesund said he always believed the truth would ultimately succeed.
He said: “I think that the world will find truth eventually, but it might take a bit of time. It’s a bit of a struggle for people like me.”
Evolution remained tight-lipped about the matter when asked by NEXT.io if it was finally in possession of the name, which would mark the resolution of one of the most intriguing mysteries in the history of iGaming.
A company spokesperson told NEXT.io: “We will not comment on the future of this legal process. Here and now, with the Supreme Court’s final ruling, the first part is completed with yet another victory for Evolution.”
It marks the culmination in a nearly half-decade long process to unmask the entity behind the multi-billion dollar hit, which has seen Evolution prevail in court decisions at every step along the way.
This also included an extensive investigation conducted by the New Jersey Department of Gaming Enforcement, as well as an internal investigation conducted by DGE-recommended consultants Spectrum Gaming Group.
New Jersey’s Department of Gaming Enforcement cleared Evolution of wrongdoing in February 2024
With the completion of this stage, the court battle — which could still continue for multiple years in the future — will move on to its next legal phase, in which the judge will have the task of ruling on the wider defamation case.
In terms of what information may have been shared, Evolution had asked Black Cube to identify all people and businesses who had a role in hiring it to put the report together, or else worked with it to do so.
The Stockholm-listed company also asked Black Cube to hand over information regarding all the payments and invoices given connected to the investigation, and the names of the people who gave and received the money.
The report was released in November 2021 via white collar litigation law firm Calcagni & Kanefsky LLP, which acted as the report’s public face, and accused Evolution of operating illegally in some prohibited markets, as well as breaching US sanctions.
In addition to accusations of operating in sanctioned markets, the report made other allegations such as that Evolution sent laptops to VIPs in prohibited regions and received payments from them in cash.
With one copy of the report sent to the NJDGE, another was forwarded to the Pennsylvania gaming regulator, as well as various media outlets, including Bloomberg.
Carlesund added: “It didn’t happen the way it is in the report. We block those countries and don’t want any traffic from there — we do everything that we should do.”
The aftermath of the report’s publication resulted in major damage to the business’ reputation as well as over $14.3bn wiped from its market capitalisation.
While the initial Bloomberg story suggested the entity responsible for commissioning the document was an Evolution competitor, this has not been confirmed.
After it was revealed Black Cube was the company to compile the report, first reported by NEXT.io, the business submitted an affidavit containing what it described as “new evidence” of the company’s wrongdoing.
Evolution said this was just another attempt at misdirection to distract from the issue of revealing who Black Cube’s secret client was.
Judge John Porto dismissed the intelligence firm’s evidence, stating that the truthfulness of the report had already been settled through the DGE probe.
The final victory in unmasking its mysterious enemy is a significant win for Evolution, which has long claimed to be innocent of the charges levelled against it.
However, getting this far has taken multiple years, as well as likely huge expense, although Carlesund said he did not want to comment on how much the endeavour has cost.
He did point out, though, that the amount the other party has paid to hide its identity is likely just as high or even higher.
#Evolution #BlackCube #NewJerseySupremeCourt #iGamingNews #LegalBattle #MartinCarlesund #GamblingRegulation #DGE #DefamationCase #CasinoIndustry
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