Poker Processor Ira Rubin Gets 3 Years In Jail

Back in April 2011, Ira Rubin was arrested in Guatemala as part of a  federal investigation into an illegal poker processing operation running into billions of dollars. Fifteen months later, and the US man has now been sentenced to three years in prison and has also received a $5 million forfeiture order.
Ira Rubin was one of the eleven people named by the DoJ on the April 15, 2011, online poker indictments. The 54 year old has also received the longest jail term of all the seven men so far sentenced, with Judge Lewis Kaplan describing him as an “unreformed conman and fraudster” that needed to receive a significant sentence in order “to protect the community.”
During his tenure as a poker processor Rubin was able to mislead banks and credit card companies by disguising transactions from FullTilt, PokerStars, and Absolute Poker, to look like they were coming from websites he had created to look like sporting goods companies and other businesses. That took place between 2006 to March 2011, but this isn’t the first time Ira Rubin has fallen foul of US authorities. In fact, Rubin still owes $8 million as part of a Federal Trade Commission judgment against him for operating a fraudulent telemarketing operation between 2003 and 2006.
Since 2008, the U.S. citizen had then been living in Costa Rica where he has stashed at least $2 million of his money. In addition, Rubin apparently also gave several gold bars to an acquaintance there who is now reluctant to part with them.
During the court proceedings, Ira Rubin broke down in tears on several occasions and said; “I’m 54-year-old and I’m tired of running. I just want to go home to my family.”
Out of the 11 people indicted by the DoJ in April, 2011, Ira Rubin, John Campos, Ray Bitar, Brent Beckley, Bradley Franzen, Ryan Lang, and Chad Elie have all been apprehended by US authorities. Only PokerStars’ Isai Scheinberg, Nelson Burtnick and Paul Tate, and Absolute Poker’s Scott Tom have remained untouched.