PokerStars founder Isai Scheinberg walks free, rings down Black Friday curtain

Online poker’s former top dog Isai Scheinberg has been sentenced to time served for his role in PokerStars’ former US-facing operations, ringing down the curtain on the nearly decade-long Black Friday saga.  

On Wednesday, US District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan sentenced Scheinberg to time served and a $30k fine for operating an illegal gambling business. Scheinberg pled guilty to that charge in March, after surrendering to US authorities in January following his arrest the previous summer in Switzerland.

Scheinberg was one of 11 individuals and four companies indicted on charges of illegal gambling, bank fraud and money laundering by the US Department of Justice on April 15, 2011. Scheinberg is the last of the individuals to face the music, while PokerStars is the only company that survived Black Friday’s financial fallout.

Inner City Press said Scheinberg was accompanied by his wife Dora at the sentencing, which could have sent him to jail for up to 18 months. But prosecutors had recommended that Scheinberg not serve any additional time in custody, based on a number of mitigating factors.