Time Served for Michael Olaf Schütt

The 29 year old Naples man, Michael Olaf Schütt was staring down 30 years in a federal prison for money laundering. Schütt has been accused of funneling millions of internet poker money through multiple bank accounts.

Instead he is now looking at a plane ride back to Germany, all though not with his American wife, after cooperating with the feds and negotiating a “substantial assistance agreement” in his case. The agreement remains confidential but a US District Judge sentenced him to 80 days in the Lee County jail and that time has already been served.

Federal prosecutors has already seized $2.47 million from bank accounts, $10,000 from Schütt’s home, a wedding and engagement ring, an Audi Quattro 7, a Porsche 911 Carrera, and four Rolex watches. Monday it was all forfeited to the feds.

In a statement to the judge made through an interpreter, Michael Olaf Schütt said,

“I would like to apologize to the court, to the community, to my family and to my wife. I’m very sorry that I broke the law.”

According to his lawyer, Schütt is expected to leave the country but if he does decide to stay, he will serve three years supervised release and cannot make any major purchases, use credit cards or open credit accounts without the approval of his probation officer.

In hopes of getting a lighter sentence, his defense team pointed out there was no victims in this crime and nothing was taken that wasn’t his, he didn’t own any of the gambling operations and they pointed out that others facing the same charge from federal prosecutors were sentenced to less than Schütt was facing.

One point that was brought up in the defense sentencing memorandum was that,

Moreover, the underlying activity, online poker, occupies a gray area of the law. There are many (outside of law enforcement) who contend that it is legal and, more significantly, there is pending federal legislation that would make it unquestionably legal.

Read how Michael Olaf Schütt legal problems got started.