Another one of the eleven defendants associated to the big online poker indictments from April 15 has been arrested. Ira Rubin who makes his residence in Costa Rica was arrested in Guatemala on Monday, April 25 and appeared before a court in Miami on Wednesday where he had no legal defence. The fact that he was arrested on foreign soil shows that the DOJ are in fact monitoring the movements of the defendants and cooperating with foreign authorities to make any arrests.
Apparently Rubin retained the services of a lawyer in New York last Friday, Stuart Meissner, who confirmed to the judge via phone call that he had not yet been paid.
“I signed an agreement with a lawyer in New York Friday,” Rubin told U.S. Magistrate Judge Andrea M. Simonton in Miami at the hearing. “I have no idea whether he’s been paid as of yet. I haven’t been able to make a phone call since Monday.”
Simonton set a hearing April 29 to determine whether Rubin will hire a local lawyer to represent him for another hearing scheduled for May 2.
Rubin is charged with conspiracy to violate the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, with violation of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, operation of an illegal gambling business in connection with Pokerstars, Full Tilt and Absolute Poker; conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering conspiracy.
According to the indictment, Rubin helped the three online poker sites by disguising payments to them as transactions with phony Internet merchants.
