Ira Rubin pleads guilty

Less than a month after Absolute Poker co-founder Brent Beckley pleaded guilty to bank fraud, payment processor Ira Rubin has followed suit, admitting to ‘disguising’ cashouts from online poker rooms as ‘payments from non-existent merchants’.

Rubin, one of the 11 men indicted by the United States Department of Justice on Black Friday, worked with several online poker rooms, including PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker, as a payment processor and pleaded guilty to disguising payments into to deceive banks as to their true origins between 2006 and March 2011.

In total, Rubin was charged with nine counts in the Black Friday indictment: three counts of violation of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), conspiracy to violate the UIGEA, conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and three counts of operation of an illegal gambling business.

If convicted of each charge, he faces up to 80 years in prison, according to an Associated Press. However, his plea agreement with the prosecution means the recommended sentence will likely be between 18 and 24 months. 

As always, PokerPlayer will bring you more news on the Black Friday fallout and possible sale of Full Tilt as and when we have it.