Beckley Black Friday sentencing could be delayed
Absolute Poker director of payments likely to face trial in late July at the earliest.
Brent Beckley, Absolute Poker’s director of payments, is now unlikely to face trial before late July following a court filing from his attorney.
Beckley pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges in December last year, admitting “I knew that it was illegal to deceive the banks,” and was initially expected to face sentencing on 19 April. This was later pushed back to early July.
However, according to Pokerfuse, attorney Mark D Harris has requested an adjournment in the light of Judge Lewis Kaplan recommending an “upward departure”, potentially increasing his sentence from the 12 to 18 months suggested in existing guidelines.
If accepted, the new trial date will be 23 July or early September, with the availability of prosecutor Arlo Devlin-Brown on the requested dates being another factor.
Beckley is one of six Black Friday defendants to have entered a guilty plea, and the only one of the six to be tied to one of the three major poker operators named in the indictment.
Payment processors Bradley Franzen, Ira Rubin, Chad Elie and Ryan Lang, as well as former banker John Campos, are the others to have pleaded guilty to selected charges. Full Tilt’s Ray Bitar and Nelson Burtnick, PokerStars’ Isai Scheinberg and Paul Tate, and Absolute Poker’s Scott Tom are yet to enter pleas of any sort.
Last month Elie agreed to forfeit claims to 22 bank accounts, the contents of which total at least US$490,000.