First sentencing in Black Friday case
Former banker John Campos given three months in prison plus three years probation for payment processing.
Payment processor John Campos has become the first of the 11 Black Friday indictees to receive a prison term, with Judge Lewis Kaplan sentencing him to three months in prison.
Campos (pictured) has also been sentenced to three months’ probation and has been barred for life from serving as a director or officer of a bank, following the involvement of SunFirst Bank – which he part-owned – in processing online gambling payments.
The 59-year-old had pleaded guilty to a single misdemeanour charge in March, 11 months after being indicted on six counts including violation of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) and money laundering conspiracy.
Judge Kaplan had initially queried the US government’s acceptance of his plea deal, asking why it was “walking away from the case”, but eventually accepted it on 20 April.
In the original Black Friday civil complaint Campos was accused of agreeing to process online poker payments for PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker “In return for a $10m investment in SunFirst by [fellow indictee Chad] Elie and Elie’s partner, which would give [them] more than 30% ownership of the bank.” SunFirst Bank entered receivership last November.
Elie, who is yet to be sentenced, pleaded guilty in March to counts of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and to operate illegal gambling businesses, before later agreeing to forfeit claims to bank accounts whose contents exceed US$490,000.
According to Bloomberg, the judge told Campos “You knew that what you were doing in connection with this bank was illegal and you went along anyway.”
A third indictee, former Absolute Poker director of payments Brent Beckley, is expected to be sentenced in September after pleading guilty to conspiracy charges in December last year. The delay in his sentencing – initially scheduled for 19 April – follows Judge Kaplan’s decision to recommend an increase in Beckley’s sentencing from the guideline length of 12-18 months imprisonment.