Rubin pleads guilty to 3 Black Friday charges
Alleged payment processor was refused bail last June after being indicted on nine counts.
Black Friday indictee Ira Rubin has pleaded guilty to three of the nine counts brought against him in a Manhattan federal court yesterday.
Rubin, whose lawyer Stuart Meissner had earlier claimed was “unlikely” to face trial due to “an agreement in principal [reached] with the government,” admitted to money laundering, bank and wire fraud, and gambling offences.
According to his plea agreement, seen by the Wall Street Journal, he has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate UIGEA, conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud, and money laundering conspiracy (counts 1, 8 and 9 in the initial indictment).
He has also agreed to forfeit “An amount of funds representing the direct and indirect proceeds of the conduct charged in Count Eight of the Superseding Indictment, and an amount of funds representing all property involved in the conduct charged in Count Nine…”
The agreement, drawn up by US District Attorney Preet Bharara and signed by Rubin and his attorney Richard Finkel, also cites Rubin’s criminal history – including previous convictions of wire fraud dating back to 1995, for which he was sentenced to 37 months in prison.
Rubin was also sentenced to four years in prison on a separate conviction of fraud, a felony, with that sentence scheduled to run concurrently with the one above. There is no indication in the plea agreement as to what proportion of the sentences were served.
The 53-year-old Costa Rica resident, who could face a maximum term of 55 years in prison for the Black Friday offences, was initially arrested in Guatemala two weeks after Black Friday.
He was denied bail in June after being deemed a flight risk, with federal prosecutors citing the fact that – on the day the indictments were unsealed – he had chartered a plane in an attempt to flee to Thailand.
Rubin is the second defendant to plead guilty, following Absolute Poker co-founder and director of payments Brent Beckley who admitted to conspiracy charges in December.
Two further defendants, Chad Elie and John Campos, are expected to face trial in March. Elie replaced his legal representation earlier this month.