Rubin denied bail

: A magistrate judge had no qualms denying Ira Rubin bail in court in New York

Details are starting to emerge about one of the men placed under indictment during the Black Friday crackdown last April. A magistrate in New York was told by US prosecutors that Ira Rubin lived in Central America for years in order to avoid a telemarketing fraud charge and had made preparations to flee to Thailand in order to avoid arrest. Rubin, whose position is of a “payment processor”, watched as his lawyer informed the court that he wanted to stay in the United States in order to face the charges against him. These charges include conspiracy to commit bank fraud and wire fraud and carry a maximum sentence of 30 years.
The US government finally cracked down on the big three poker companies on April 14 2011, by shutting down their operations with a totality that shocked the poker world. The domain names of the companies were shut down and the bank accounts of those companies were frozen all over the world. As a result of this, Poker Stars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker all made deals with the US government. There were 11 poker executives indicted on what has become known as Black Friday, charges range from money laundering to bank fraud and conspiracy.
The New York magistrate denied Rubin bail for the charges which his lawyer has called “a little bit of overkill," he added that he thought "This is the U.S. war on gambling as opposed to the U.S. war on terrorism. I don't think this is a good use of taxpayer resources." The poker industry has come under attack from prosecutors for illegally processing up to $3 billion in payments. Already another payment processor has pleaded guilty in court, in fact it was the very same court Rubin was denied bail in.
The magistrate judge denied bail saying that there were “countless reasons” why the 53 year old US citizen should be denied bail. The fact that Rubin fled abroad in 2006 to Costa Rica from Florida after being served with civil charges for fraud and has lived there for the 5 years leading up to his arrest contributed.
Online gambling has been illegal in the United States since 2006. However, some U.S. lawmakers have talked recently about legalizing Internet gambling and regulating it. The day that Rubin heard about the indictment he chartered a plane to Guatemala and intended to fly to Thailand. According to a prosecutor Rubin had told a fellow inmate that he had intended to buy a fake passport in Guatemala.