Brent Beckley Pleads Guilty to Avoid 30-Year Jail Sentence
December 21, 2011
Absolute Poker co-founder Brent Beckley, one of the 11 individuals named in the Black Friday indictments handed down by the US Department of Justice on April 15th earlier this year, has pleaded guilty to illegal gambling operation charges and money laundering.
Thirty-one-year-old Berkley, a resident of Costa Rica admits, “I knew it was illegal to accept credit cards from players to gamble on the Internet.”
Referring to the allegations that he hid online poker payments by listing these transactions as other items like jewelry, golf equipment, flowers, etc., Berkley said, “I knew it was illegal to deceive the banks in this way.”
He admitted to Judge Ronald Ellis in Manhattan Federal Court earlier this week that he accepted credit card payments from 2006 through 2011 for deposits for online poker player accounts at Absolute Poker.
Transactions allowed by Beckley to go under the radar were in violation of the UIGEA, which deems it illegal for payment processors to process transactions for online gambling purposes. Ira Rubin assisted Beckley in concealing these transactions, also indicted on Black Friday.
Sentencing is set to go down on April 19, 2012, and Beckley could serve only one and a half years in jail, thanks to his plea deal, which will keep him from having to serve the max 30 years.
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