Ira Rubin, One of the 11 Indicted on Black Friday Arrested
May 2, 2011
Another of the 11 indicted accused defendants involved in the three big online poker sites taken down two weeks ago has been apprehended. Ira Rubin, charged with operating an illegal online gambling site for US players, was arrested in Guatemala on April 25th. After the online domains of FullTiltPoker.com, AbsolutePoker.com, UB.com, and PokerStars.com were seized by the FBI, the US Department of Justice ordered the arrest of 11 people involved with these former online poker sites that allow US players to play online poker for real money.
At a hearing in Miami, Rubin told Andrea M. Simonton, US Magistrate Judge, that “I signed an agreement with a lawyer in New York Friday. I have no idea whether he’s been paid as of yet. I haven’t been able to make a phone call since Monday.”
Judge Simonton contacted the attorney, Stuart Meissner, who validated that he had not in fact been paid, so court dates were rescheduled for April 29th and May 2nd.
Dressed in a prison jumpsuit and handcuffed with shackles, following the hearing Rubin was returned to the Miami Federal Detention Center.
After the UIGEA was passed in 2006, it became illegal for banks to process online transactions regarding online gambling to offshore gambling companies, such as Full Tilt Poker, PokerStars, and Absolute, all of which are based outside the US (PokerStars is based in Isle of Man, Full Tilt Poker is based in Ireland, and Absolute Poker is based in Costa Rica).
Prosecutors now allege that despite the UIGEA’s limitations, the aforementioned online poker institutions falsified information regarding bank transactions in order to continue taking payments from US players, thus tricking the banks into allowing the transactions. Now the US government has fined the companies with $3 billion in penalties and forfeitures.
Where Rubin comes in to all of this is that, according to the indictment, he helped the three poker brands in question disguise these payments with “phony Internet merchants.”
Rubin was charged with 9 counts that included conspiracy to violate the UIGEA, 3 counts of violation of the UIGEA in correlation to the three online poker sites, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud, as well as conspiracy to commit money laundering.
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