This week, Chad Elie was sentenced to five months in jail for the role he played in helping to process payments to illegal online gambling sites in the United States. He is one of eleven people indicted on charges related to Black Friday, when three of the world’s top online poker sites were shut down in America.
Elie was the payment process for Full Tilt Poker, Absolute Poker and Poker Stars. He was responsible for transferring payments from the players to the casino operators, disguising the transactions as payday loans rather than online gambling payments. As such, he has been charged with fraud, in addition to aiding in the operation of illegal gambling sites.
This event follows a number of Black Friday sentencings that have taken place in the past few months. Another payment processor, Ira Rubin, received three years in prison recently. He had a previous criminal record; so, his sentence was much longer than Elie’s. In September, Neil Burtnick was sentenced to up to five years in prison for helping to process payments for the same three sites. He received more jail time, as his list of charges also included conspiracy and money laundering.