PokerStars founder Isai Scheinberg has flown from Switzerland to New York to face US authorities after nine years of avoiding charges of bank fraud, money laundering and illegal gambling imposed in 2011 by the US Attorney General.
Scheinberg was arrested by federal agents when he landed in New York, denied all three charges and was bailed for US$1m, says a report in Forbes.
Scheinberg is the final one of 11 defendants to have faced a US trial since what has become known as “Black Friday”, although he is the only one to deny the charges. The magazine believes that a deal has been struck between Scheinberg and the US authorities that would preclude a jail sentence.
He founded PokerStars in 2001, making it available to US citizens although online poker was unlawful from 2006. PokerStars was forced to leave the US market in 2011 after the US Government seized the domain names and bank accounts of the largest providers of online poker.
Scheinberg avoided arrest by remaining outside of the US until now. It is understood that he was not extradited, but travelled back to the US of his own free will.
