It has been nearly six years since Black Friday occurred in the United States and Absolute Poker founder Scott Tom is now back in the states to face charges due to being in violation of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act from 2011. Tom faces charges of money laundering and bank fraud from an indictment on April 15th 2011 when Black Friday occurred.
Tom is now 37 years old and has chosen to voluntarily return to the United States to face the charges from 2011. Tom arrived last week and attended a brief hearing where he choose to plead not guilty to charges. The court set a bond of $500,000 which was paid by Tom and he has since been released. Tom is one of 12 individuals indicted on Black Friday.
James Henderson is the attorney representing Tom who stated to Reuters that the case will be decided via a plea deal and he expects a resolution in the case quickly. Brent Beckley is Tom’s step brother who was indicted due to his connection with Absolute Poker soon after April 2011 and ended up serving 14 months in prison after entering a guilty plea to charges of bank and wire fraud.
If Tom is able to come to an agreement with prosecutors in his case, then this will leave just one individual named in the Black Friday indictments that has not faced charges. Isai Scheinberg, the founder of PokerStars, is the only individual who has yet to come forward and face charges set by the US government in relation to Black Friday.
At the time of the online poker shutdown, Absolute Poker held the number three position as the largest online poker room operating in the United States, behind PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker. PokerStars and Full Tilt have been able to recover over the years but Absolute Poker was found to be unable to provide player funds back to members and has yet to return any money to players who still had a balance in their online poker account on Black Friday.
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