Paul Tate in plea deal with US authorities
The 2011 Black Friday shutdown of online poker in the United States hit the US media headlines again Thursday following a guilty plea entered by a former Pokerstars payments manager, Paul Tate (42).
In what appears to have been a plea bargain deal with the US Attorney's office for Manhattan, Tate entered a guilty plea admitting that he began working for the Isle of Man-based PokerStars in 2006 doing technical work and interacting with companies that processed payments.
"My family and I have paid a heavy price for this conduct," the British citizen told U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Moses, who accepted the plea and said that sentencing will take place November 21.
InfoPowa readers will recall that Tate was one of 11 individuals named in the US shutdown action in April 2011; his guilty plea leaves the cases of only two of those indicted – Isai Scheinberg the former owner of Pokerstars and Scott Tom, founder of Absolute Poker – still to be finalised.
Reporting on Tate's guilty plea, the publication Fortune said that it had reached out to the current owners of Pokerstars, the Canadian-based Amaya online gambling group, which had responded by saying that it was not involved in the issues before the court and that the case would have no impact on its business.
Fortune recalls that in 2012, PokerStars paid $731 million to settle civil claims brought by the U.S. Justice Department. PokerStars also agreed to purchase Full Tilt Poker as part of the agreement, after the former rival collapsed following the indictment.
Online Casino News Courtesy of Infopowa
