Black Friday indictee Elie has prison reporting date postponed
Judge will decide at end of month whether payment processor will be sent to maximum security prison.
Chad Elie, one of the 11 individuals indicted on Black Friday, is awaiting a final ruling from Judge Lewis Kaplan on whether he will avoid maximum security prison.
Elie’s reporting date has been pushed back until the end of this month, and he said via his Twitter account: “[Judge Kaplan] does not want me in Maximum Security Prison.” He had earlier revealed through the social networking site that he had been assigned to a maximum security facility on Christmas Eve.
The payment processor had pleaded guilty in March last year to a single count of bank fraud, having earlier seen a motion to dismiss – filed jointly with fellow defendant John Campos – thrown out by Judge Kaplan.
He was sentenced in October to five months in prison, and will now report on 28 January according to Pokerfuse, with the site claiming the delay will “allow prison officials to consider the court’s recommendation [not to place Elie in a maximum security facility].”
Of the remaining Black Friday indictees, payment processor Ira Rubin was sentenced to three years in prison while former Absolute Poker director of payments Brent Beckley was given 14 months after entering a guilty plea in December 2011.
Campos was handed a three-month sentence, while two further payment processors – Ryan Lang and Bradley Franzen – are still awaiting sentencing.
Former Full Tilt payments director Nelson Burtnick pleaded guilty in September to charges including bank fraud, money laundering and conspiracy to commit unlawful internet gambling, however the operator’s former chief executive Ray Bitar pleaded not guilty after returning to the United States in July.
Meanwhile two former board members of Full Tilt’s software company Tiltware – Rafe Furst and Howard Lederer – settled the civil cases against them in November and December respectively.