Optimal Group, the Montreal-based payments processor, has responded to a request for information from the U.S. Attorney's office in the Southern District of New York (USAO).
The company also said the USAO issued seizure warrants for certain company funds.
"Optimal has received a copy of warrants of seizure issued by the U.S. Attorney's Office against funds of certain payment processors on deposit with two U.S. banks," it said in a prepared statement released Friday.
The warrants have been issued against roughly $4.2 million that the Optimal affiliate, FirePay, has on deposit in a reserve account and about $15 million Optimal Payments has on deposit in a money market account.
The company said it is in the process of responding a voluntary request for information by the USAO, and was assured the warrants do not bear in any way on the company's ongoing discussions with the U.S. government.
Optimal shares dropped 84 cents (9.5 percent) to $7.97 in morning trading. The stock fell from a high of $15.58 in May 2006 to a low of $7.45 in late January and has traded below $10 since.
Optimal Acquisition, a subsidiary of Optimal Group, announced on Dec. 15 that it had reached terms with FireOne to acquire the payment processor for £32 million ($63.3 million), or 60 pence per share. An independent committee of the board of FireOne concluded that the sale of the business was the best option to ensure "a certain return to FireOne shareholders" after its October withdrawal from the U.S. market.
FireOne ceased processing transactions for U.S. online gamblers on Oct. 13. Roughly 85 percent of the company's revenue was derived from the United States.
In November, the company announced to its non-U.S. customers that it would continue to serve them.