First Black Friday indictees could face trial in March
Jury in Elie/Campos trial expected to rule on whether online poker counts as illegal gambling.
Black Friday indictees John Campos and Chad Elie could be set to go before a jury in March next year after their motions to dismiss were debated by federal judge Lewis Kaplan and a number of other federal prosecutors at a meeting in New York late last week.
Lawyers for both Elie and Campos (pictured) were present at the hearing, as was fellow indictee Ira Rubin’s attorney. However Rubin is reportedly unlikely to go to trial after his attorney Stuart Meissner claimed to have reached “an agreement in principle with the government.”
The duo had submitted their respective motions to dismiss in October, with their itemised arguments including claims that the Illegal Gambling Business Act is sufficiently vague in relation to online poker.
However, according to Forbes, Judge Kaplan said: “I think it’s extraordinarily unlikely that the entire indictment will be dismissed.”
The announcement comes just one month after SunFirst Bank, the financial institution at the heart of the ongoing investigations which was formerly part-owned by Campos, was placed into receivership.
Meanwhile, the three poker sites named in the Black Friday case “ PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker “ have received a further extension to their deadline to respond to the amended civil complaint. Their new deadline is 2 January.