In a surprise move made by the U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan, the prosecution was forced to explain why John Campos of First Sun Trust, a former banking executive who made pre Black Friday money processing possible, was offered such a minor plea deal. The prosecution had offered to let Campos off on a misdemeanor banking charge instead of the full array of felonies that could be charged against him. Kaplan asked of them, “You’re basically walking away from the prosecution?” It seems the powerful case the federal government once had has for some reason fallen apart. This trial is only the first of many to occur, but it seems very strange to let such a major conspirator off so easy. Campos and his bank was offered an investment of $10 million for his bank, which he was the vice chairman for, if they processed online poker funds by various large sites such as PokerStars and Full Tilt.
The plea deal would have allowed for Campos to be out in six months which seems very short given he is accused of processing over $200 million since 2009. The speculation is running rampant through the poker world on why he was given such a easy plea deal. Some believe that this deal shows off that the government’s case is very weak, while others believe that the federal prosecution does not want to debate the legality of online and possibly have laws such as the UGIEA repealed before U.S. companies are fully ready to release their software and poker sits. The latter obviously being far fetched, but it is reasonable that the judge and jury could rule that banks processing money for games of skill is not illegal and the entire federal case against most of the Black Friday defendants would come crashing down.
In U.S law, a judge has the right to reject any plea deal, so if the prosecution cannot come up with some very good reasons why Campos is being let off so easy this case will go to trial. Obviously none of us can be sure, but it will be interesting to watch as the prosecution comes out with the reasons why Campos is being let off so easily and if and when this case goes to jury trial what will unfold for the legality of poker.