A plea deal for the final payment processor indicted in the “Black Friday” case, former Utah banker John Campos, has been delayed by the judge hearing the case as he questions the prosecution’s decision on the plea deal.
In a federal court yesterday, U. S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan heard the arrangement of the plea deal for Campos with federal officials. That deal would have seen the trial scheduled for April 9 dismissed, but Judge Kaplan wasn’t pleased with the actions by the prosecution. Under the plea arrangement, Campos would have pled guilty to a misdemeanor bank gambling charge rather than a felony, which piqued Judge Kaplan’s interest.
According to the Associated Press, Kaplan asked the government attorneys, “You’re basically walking away from the prosecution,” when the deal was presented by them. The AP states that Kaplan questioned why the prosecution was willing to make such a deal, which would have garnered Campos six months in jail, when the bank he worked for allegedly processed a huge amount of the gambling transactions that make up the “Black Friday” case.
The prosecution, headed by Assistant U. S. Attorney Arlo Devlin-Brown, stated that there were risks in proceeding to trial against Campos. Devlin-Brown stated that there were legal opinions given to Campos’ legal team by unnamed gaming outlets that suggested it might not be illegal to process the money for the companies. “There would be a risk that a jury on that basis could have a problem,” Devlin-Brown said to the judge, indicating that the prosecution didn’t want to take a chance with a jury trial.
Devlin-Brown also stated that Campos’ involvement in the alleged crimes – the efforts by payment processors to deceive U. S. banks into thinking gaming transactions were for merchandise – was at the “tail end of the conspiracy.” By stating this, Devlin-Brown appears to be saying that Campos wasn’t as complicit in the alleged conspiracy as the other payment processors charged in the case were.
Judge Kaplan refused to immediately accept the plea deal between the government and Campos following the hearing. Kaplan stated he will make a decision on the plea deal when Campos is due to be sentenced, which is scheduled for June 27.
On Tuesday, Chad Elie (who was supposed to head to trial with Campos on April 9) was able to have Judge Kaplan accept his plea deal in the “Black Friday” case. Elie pled guilty to bank fraud before Kaplan and is expected to receive between six and twelve months in jail. Elie will also have to pay a fine of $500,000 and will be back in court for his official sentencing (Elie is currently out on bail) on October 3.
Campos is the final payment processor to come before the court and, prior to the rejection of his plea deal, the four men before him have all pled guilty to a variety of charges. In addition to Elie, Ira Rubin (pled guilty in January 2012), Bradley Franzen (pled guilty in May 2011) and Ryan Lang (pled guilty earlier this month) has received plea deals in the case. It is expected that, in most cases, the men will receive jail time but, due to time served, may be released once they officially receive their sentences.
To this point in the “Black Friday” case, all of the attention has been on the payment processors. The alleged owners of the online sites that were indicted – Isai Scheinberg and Paul Tate of PokerStars, Ray Bitar and Nelson Burtwick of Full Tilt Poker and Scott Tom of Absolute Poker – have yet to be apprehended as they appear to be outside of U. S. law enforcement jurisdiction in foreign countries. Brent Beckley, the former Absolute Poker director who has been in front of the court, has pled guilty to bank fraud and will be sentenced on April 19.
In addition to the owners who have been indicted but yet to face prosecution, the professional poker players added into the amended complaint in September 2011, alleged former members of the Board of Directors of Full Tilt Poker, Howard Lederer, Chris “Jesus” Ferguson and Rafe Furst, have also as of yet not appeared in a courtroom.
