NETeller has no plans to leave the U.S. market, despite the arrests earlier this week of NETeller’s founders by American authorities, a NETeller spokesman said today.

NETeller, a British company, is the Internet’s largest electronic money transferring service and is used mainly by online gamblers, including many online poker players, to send funds to and collect funds from online gambling sites.

Speculation has been rampant throughout the Internet, since the arrests, that NETeller might pull out of the U.S. market because of what happened, but a NETeller spokesman told PokerHelper.com today that there are no plans to do so.

“We are monitoring the situation but are not planning to abandon the U.S. market,” the NETeller spokesman said.

“Approximately 75% of our customers are American, so we really couldn’t cut out that market without closing down the company.”

U.S. authorites say 95% of all NETeller transactions are gambling-related.

“Since the arrests, we have been flooded with phone calls from NETeller customers in America, wanting to know if we will be closing their accounts,” the spokesman, located in Calgary, Canada, continued. “We have been assuring them that we are not.

“Callers have also wanted to know if we are going to stop doing financial transactions with online gambling sites and we have told them we are not. Other callers were worried about the status of the funds in their NETeller accounts, and we told them they can withdraw any and all funds at any time.”

Federal prosucutors in the U.S. announced yesterday that two founders and former executives of NETeller have been arrested and charged with funneling billions of dollars in gambling proceeds to overseas betting operations.

The charges against John David Lefebvre, 55, and Stephen Eric Lawrence, 46, both of Canada, were in criminal complaints unsealed in U.S. District Court in New York on Monday.

Lefebvre was arrested Monday in Malibu, Calif., and Lawrence was arrested Monday in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

They were charged with money laundering and conspiring to transfer funds with the intent to promote illegal gambling, and could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

Neither man is still with the company, although they retain shares of stock in NETeller.

Editor’s note: Shortly after the above story was filed, NETeller made the following announcement: “Due to recent U.S. legislative changes and events, effective immediately, U.S. members are no longer able to transfer funds to or from any online gambling sites. All U.S. members will continue to be able to use their NETeller e-wallet account to safely transfer funds to and from non-gambling merchants and are not required to close their account or withdraw their funds.”