Campos guilty plea accepted by court

U.S District Court Judge Lewis A. Kaplan has accepted John Campos in pleading guilty to one charge relating to the events of Black Friday.

Campos initially pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of “causing a bank insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to process illegal gambling transactions” but was rejected by Judge Kaplan on the grounds that he wanted the prosecution to reveal why they had entered the agreement with Campos.

In a letter submitted by Preet Bharara, Arlo Devlin-Brown, and Andrew D. Goldstein, the prosecution urged Judge Kaplan to accept Campos’ plea for the reason that his involvement was “relatively minor” in relation to the other suspects charged in those indictments.

Bluff Magazine reports that Campos was initially looking at five felony charges based on his involvement with illegal payment processing as the vice-chairman of SunFirst Bank. Campos is alleged to have conspired with Chad Elie and Jeremy Johnson to use the bank as a means of processing transactions between poker players and online poker sites in exchange for a $10 million investment in the bank and a bonus for Campos.

As part of his plea deal, Campos has agreed to a lifetime ban from the banking industry. He faces a sentencing hearing on June 27th, where he could receive up to six months in prison.