On Wednesday Bloomberg.com reported that Ira Rubin, one of the 11 men indicted on April 15th, 2011 for his role in facilitating illegal online gambling in the United States, had been arrested in Guatemala on Monday, and appeared in a Florida courtroom Wednesday.
According to Bloomberg.com, Rubin did not have a defense counsel and was unsure if the counsel he contacted on Friday had been paid. Rubin told U.S. Magistrate Judge Andrea M. Simonton, “I signed an agreement with a lawyer in New York Friday… I have no idea whether he’s been paid as of yet. I haven’t been able to make a phone call since Monday.”
Judge Simonton made a call to attorney Stuart Meisner who verified that he had not been paid by the defendant, which prompted the judge to schedule another hearing for April 29 to determine if Rubin would hire another attorney.
Rubin was charged with nine counts in the indictment that was unsealed on April 15th –thereafter known as Black Friday in the poker world—and according to the indictment was responsible for helping the three online poker rooms setup shell companies to disguise their transactions. The charges he faces according to Bloomberg.com are: conspiracy to violate the Unlawful Internet Gambling Act; three counts of violation of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Act in connection with Pokerstars, Full Tilt and Absolute Poker; three counts of operation of an illegal gambling business in connection with Pokerstars, Full Tilt and Absolute Poker; conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering conspiracy.
