January 17, 2012
Author: Scott

 

Ira Rubin pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Manhattan today to various online gambling related charges. According to the plea deal that was released, Rubin pleaded guilty to bank fraud, wire fraud, money laundering and conspiracy charges that are related to violating the online gambling laws in the United States. Rubin can face up to a maximum of 55 years in prison although prosecutors are only going to ask the courts to sentence Rubin to 18-24 months, since Rubin was cooperative and pleaded guilty before trial.

 

• Read the full Ira Rubin Plea Agreement at Scribd – Ira Rubin Plea Agreement

 

Who is Ira Rubin?
Ira Rubin is a 53 year old American citizen that isn’t a stranger to law enforcement in the United States. Rubin has faced or is facing charges in New York, Nevada, Massachusetts, Florida, Virginia and Missouri. Rubin has been in trouble with the law dating back to the 1970’s and I’m a bit surprised that prosecutors are only looking for Rubin to serve 18-24 months. Rubin is a repeat offender and has committed fraud in the past before he started processing payments for online poker sites.

 

What Did Ira Rubin Do?
Ira Rubin is one of eleven individuals that were charged on April 15^th 2011 (Black Friday) by federal prosecutors in the online poker crackdown that saw PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, Absolute Poker and other poker site closed by the US DoJ. Rubin was charged with various crimes in April 2011, but only pleaded guilty to a few of those charges today, which we’ve listed above.

Rubin was charged with helping PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker process payments in the United States illegally by hiding the actual nature of the transaction. US banks that were processing the payments for Rubin thought the money was from various businesses including a golf store, electronics company and other businesses. Rubin helped online poker sites process illegal payments in the USA from 2008 – 2011.

 

Ira Rubin Past Charges
Ira was arrested and charged in 2006 for a payment processing company that Rubin ran from 2003-2006. The payment processing company that Rubin owned assisted telemarketing firms in Canada to sell non-existent credit cards in the USA. According to new reports Rubin still owes an $8M judgement against him by the FTC stemming from these charges.

After being charged Rubin violated a restraining order and a judge issued a warrant for the arrest of Rubin. Once Rubin found out about the warrant he fled the United States and went to Costa Rica, which is where he got involved in online poker processing. Ira stayed in Costa Rica and conducted his illegal business until the US DoJ charged Rubin in the Black Friday indictments.

 

Ira Rubin Black Friday Arrest
Rubin was arrested in Guatemala in April 2011 and has been held without bail since in the United States. According to reports Rubin was caught in Guatemala trying to flee to Thailand. Rubin knew that the heat was coming down on him and he was trying to flee to Thailand where he would have been able to hide most likely with the money that he has hidden in banks around the world.

Initially Rubin was facing nearly 80 years in prison on the charges he was facing, but the plea deal he made with prosecutors will help him receive an incredibly reduced sentence. Sentencing is scheduled to take place on May 17^th 2012 and Rubin is only expected to be jailed for 18-24 months maximum although that sentence may even be reduced more.

 

Black Friday Convictions
The USA has been trying to convict the individuals charged in relation to Black Friday. Ira Rubin is the 2^nd individual to sign a plea deal, as Absolute Poker co-founder Brett Buckley signed a plea deal with similar charges about a month ago. John Campos and Chad Elie have also been arrested in relation to the Black Friday indictments by the US DoJ. These two individuals are expected to appear in court in March 2012 to begin trial.

I’m sure Elie and Campos are going to try and sign a plea agreement as well, but if they want to sign a plea agreement they’ll need to act soon before the trial begins. Buckley and Rubin received great plea deals based on the charges they were looking at, and I think Campos and Elie would be silly not to try and take a plea deal before going to trial.

Only these four individuals have been arrested out of the eleven individuals that were charged on Black Friday. The remaining individuals are still free and haven’t been found yet. This story will still be developing throughout 2012 and if any of the other people indicted on Black Friday get arrested we’ll make sure we notify our visitors.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 18th, 2012 at 2:12 am and is filed under news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.