Campos plea deal accepted
Motivations of US government in accepting misdemeanour plea had been queried by Judge Lewis Kaplan.
Utah banker John Campos, one of 11 individuals indicted on Black Friday, has had his guilty plea accepted by Judge Lewis Kaplan.
Campos (pictured) had initially pleaded guilty to a single misdemeanour charge, a deal accepted by the United States authorities, but Judge Kaplan had initially refused to accept it before receiving an explanation as to why the government was “walking away from the case”.
A former part-owner of SunFirst Bank in Utah, which entered receivership last November, Campos’ plea deal was submitted in the same week as that of fellow indictee Chad Elie, but only Elie’s was accepted at the time.
This week saw Preet Bharara, United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, submit a letter to Judge Kaplan defending the government’s stance, stating that the misdemeanour relates to Campos “causing a bank… to process illegal gambling transactions,” and explaining “That is what the defendant principally did in this case.”
In the letter, published by Utah newspaper the Salt Lake Tribune, Bharara goes on to add that “The guidelines stipulated in the plea agreement is effectively the same as the range would have been had the defendant pled guilty to all five felony gambling charges against him in the original indictment.”
It also notes that Campos’ role was “fairly minor” and that “Unlike the other defendants, most of whom made millions from their illegal conduct, Campos received only $20,000 ($4,500 of which he kept) as a direct payment for poker processing.
Finally, it explains: “Unlike all but one of the other defendants, Campos was never charged with any bank or wire fraud offense relating to the disguising of gambling transactions.”
Following the acceptance of the agreement Campos has been barred from the banking industry for life, whereas such a ban would have otherwise required a separate proceeding from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
This is also cited in the letter from Bharara among the justifications for accepting the plea deal, as well as a “slightly more viable good faith agreement” than some other defendants on the grounds that he may have been “Plied…with multiple legal opinions regarding the alleged legality of poker processing” both by the poker companies and by their agents (such as Elie).
Campos had “ along with Elie “ been due to stand trial on 9 April but this trial was subsequently adjourned following the plea deals of the pair, even before that of the banker was accepted.
Six of the 11 Black Friday defendants have entered guilty pleas, with those yet to do so all tied to one of Full Tilt Poker, PokerStars and Absolute Poker. Brent Beckley, head of payments with Absolute, is the only individual directly tied to any of the three poker companies to have pleaded guilty.