Chad Elie Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy Charge

Payment processor Chad Elie pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge on Monday, admitting that he acted illegally by processing payments between several poker companies and US customers. Elie was previously expected to fight the charges against him.

On April 15th, 2011, or "Black Friday," 11 individuals were indicted by the United States and faced charges including bank fraud, money laundering, and violating gambling laws.

The majority of those facing charges have still not made significant progress in court. Prior to this week, three individuals had pleaded guilty - Absolute Poker founder Brent Beckley and payment processors Ira Rubin and Ryan Lang.

Just two men looked like they were prepared to fight the charges against them - John Campos and Chad Elie. Campos and Elie's names have been closely linked since Black Friday because they have taken a number of legal actions together.

The two men first filed motions for dismissal from the case in September (those motions were denied), and recently they submitted requests to the court on the topic of what evidence should and should not be admissible for use in their trials.

Elie Gives Up

On Monday, Chad Elie decided to stop fighting and pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy. He admitted to Judge Lewis Kaplan that he knew his conduct was wrong.

Elie is scheduled to be sentenced on October 3rd. He has agreed to forfeit $500,000 that he earned while acting as a payment processor, and he faces a maximum of 5 years in prison. The guideline range for sentencing suggests he is likely to receive between 6 and 12 months behind bars.

Considering they've taken so many other actions simultaneously, it will be interesting to see if John Campos enters a similar plea in the near future or if he will still choose to fight the charges against him in court.

As always, PokerStrategy.com will continue to follow this and all other stories related to Black Friday.

By Matt Kaufman