PokerStars founder Isai Scheinberg has pleaded guilty to running an illegal gambling business related to the Black Friday indictments in 2011 that saw online poker severely clamped down on in the United States.
Sheinberg pleaded guilty in federal court in the Southern District of New York, with Judge Lewis Kaplan accepting the plea. He stood accused of illegally offering online poker services to Americans, using fraudulent means to mask payment sources for the funding of accounts. The charges were outstanding for nearly a decade against Scheinberg, who was eventually arrested in Switzerland last year.
The defendant faces up to five years in prison for his crimes, although it's likely that a plea deal has been reached that'll see a much lower sentence.
Commenting on the case US Attorney Geoffrey Berman said, "Ten years ago, this office charged 11 defendants who operated, or provided fraudulent payment processing services to, three of the largest online poker companies then operating in the United States - PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and Absolute Poker - with operating illegal gambling businesses and other crimes.
"As Isai Scheinberg's guilty plea today shows, the passage of time will not undermine this office's commitment to holding accountable individuals who violate US law."