Co-Founder Of Absolute Poker Pleads Guilty

2011 December 21
by Michael H. Berkens

In April of this year we told you that several gambling poker sites were seized by the Feds & the owners charged with a bunch of Federal crimes.

Yesterday,  the co-founder and the director of payment processing for Absolute Poker, Brent Beckley, pleaded guilty in Manhattan’s federal court to conspiring to violate the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act and commit bank fraud.

“I knew that it was illegal to accept credit cards from players to gamble on the Internet,” Beckley reportedly said to U.S. Magistrate Judge Ronald Ellis.

He faces between 12 months and 18 months in prison. Sentencing is set for April 19.

Beckley is a U.S. citizen who is residing in Costa Rica, where Absolute Poker is based.

Beckley returned to the U.S. voluntarily yesterday and surrendered to law enforcement agents.

Beckley also agreed to forfeit $300,000, which the government said constituted the proceeds of his illegal conduct.

7 Responses leave one →
  1. 2011 December 21

    The government thinks that the co-founder of Absolute Poker only made $300k? Maybe that is how much he would make in a week.

  2. 2011 December 21

    “The government thinks that the co-founder of Absolute Poker only made $300k? Maybe that is how much he would make in a week.”

    In a day more likely.

  3. 2011 December 21
    Money Money Money Money Money permalink

    300K. LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

  4. 2011 December 21

    In comparison, 300M plea agreement by PartyPoker founder http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7786909.stm

  5. 2011 December 21
    Tim Davids permalink

    Online Poker should be legal anyway. Buckets of taxes and dollars are leaving the country. Prohibition didn’t work either but at least the dollars stayed within the boarders.

    Poker is not the devil, Governments running lottos is :)

  6. 2011 December 21

    The Federal Wire Act (1961) is an interesting law. Its language is ambiguous. Maybe DOJ should go after Day Traders and banks’ Wall St. trading desks? Are they not making wagers and bets over the wire?

    Isn’t it true that one top domainer once wanted to get into the online casino business?

    The PartyPoker founder is an IIT grad and a billionaire on the Forbes list. He just paid a small (lol) $300M fine. “Thank you for your payment.”

    Maybe the AbsolutePoker guy’s real mistake was not facilitating online gambling to US residents but defrauding US payment processors?

    Did the PartyPoker guy also defraud US payment processors?

Trackbacks & Pingbacks

  1. Co-Founder Of Absolute Poker Pleads Guilty | Internet Gambling Australia

Leave a Reply

Note: You can use basic XHTML in your comments. Your email address will never be published.

Subscribe to this comment feed via RSS

Please copy the string 6aAJd1 to the field below: