Founder of PokerStars (Isai Schenberg) entrusted himself

PokerStars founder Isai Schenberg is in custody after nearly nine years by the US Department of Justice on charges of involvement in bank fraud, money laundering, and illegal gambling.

He has also agreed to surrender his passports and restrict his movements in New York and Washington DC Area.

Lithuanian-born Canadian citizen Isai Scheinberg is charged in the Black Friday indictments.

They included representatives of the online poker network PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and the Ceres Network, as well as payment processors that facilitated deposits and withdrawals for US customers following the federal Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (2006).

What is Black Friday ?

Prior to UIEGA, there was no specific law governing online poker site operations. In the US, online poker sites were legally operated in the gray area.

After UIEGA, many sites left the US market, most notably Party Poker.

Others such as PokerStars, Full Tilt, and CEREUS continued to gamble, as they suspected that online poker was not really a target of the UIGEA and that US authorities were more interested in Battling online sports betting. But they were mistaken,on 15 April 2016 – a day that online poker players in America remembered as “Black Friday”. — the US Department of Justice seized domain names linked to the three networks, freezing player balances.

Settlement of $731 Million to US Goverment

Despite the indictment against him, Scheinberg stepped in, agreeing to a $ 731 million agreement with the DOJ to pay Full Tilt’s customers.

In 2014, Scheinberg sold PokerStars for $ 4.9 billion to Amaya Gaming, now The Stars Group. But until this month, Scheinberg remained a fugitive in American justice.

Shaheenberg’s fellow indices have been sentenced to prison terms ranging from a few months to three years. All pleaded guilty to the charges against him.