PokerStars Founder On Bail In the US Following Arrest
New York where Isai Scheinberg was arrested
In what was mainly un-reported last month, the founder of PokerStars Isai Scheinberg surrendered to US Authorities on January 17th on nine year-old charges of illegal wire activity and money laundering.
The charges date back to the infamous 2011 “Black Friday” where the US government effectively shut down all online poker in the US and caused the collapse of the then giant Full Tilt Poker business that showed without money flowing in from US players it was effectively bankrupt.
However PokerStars paid all players and in the end settled all debts of its competitor at Full Tilt.
According to reports Scheinberg was in Switzerland and following negotiations with US Federal law enforcement decided to fly to New York and voluntarily handed himself in to US agents. He was taken into custody and appeared in court where he pleaded not guilty to both counts.
Bail was set at $1 million and Scheinberg is now on bail, but it is certain that the founder of what is still the world’s largest online poker platform will not serve a day in prison.
Olga Zverovich, the federal prosecutor in the case told the court that, “We have an agreement in principle on the basic terms.” Meaning that an agreement is in place and the formality of the arrest and bail is effectively to remove the arrest warrants from Isai Scheinberg and to allow him access to future travel in the US.
In 2014 PokerStars was acquired by Amaya in a deal worth nearly $5 billion, currently PokerStars is again being sold to Flutter Group who already own Paddy Power and Betfair.
