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PokerStars founder Isai Scheinberg avoids prison sentence but to pay $30k fine

PokerStars founder Isai Scheinberg has been sentenced to "time served" and a $30,000 fine, and will avoid a prison sentence, following his initial indictment on Black Friday in 2011.

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Scheinberg faced multiple charges, including conspiracy to defraud the US, bank and wire fraud, and money laundering.

Having avoided arrest until 2019, he was detained in Switzerland and surrendered to US federal agents in January 2020.

In March, he pleaded guilty to one count of operating an unlawful internet gambling business.

In a statement to pokerfuse, Scheinberg said: “I am pleased that Judge Kaplan has determined today not to impose a prison sentence in my case.

“PokerStars played an important role in creating today’s global regulated online poker industry by running an honest and transparent business that always treated its players fairly.

"I am particularly proud that in 2011, when PokerStars exited the US, all of its American players were made whole immediately.

"Indeed, PokerStars reimbursed millions of players who were owed funds from other online companies that could not or did not repay those players.”

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