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A Canadian man indicted last year for processing payments for the world's two biggest online poker rooms has plead guilty.
Douglas Rennick, 35, of Alberta, entered his guilty plea today (May 11, 2010) in federal court in New York. Michael Pancer, a lawyer for Rennick, said in court that his client agreed to forfeit $17.1 million and could face a prison term of six to 12 months when sentenced Sept. 15.
Rennick was charged with laundering nearly $350 million in funds for PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker over a two year period from 2007 to 2009.
When asked by U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein to describe his crime, Rennick said, "I had a business that transferred money from offshore gaming sites to American players within the Southern District of New York."
Rennick and his co-conspirators were accused of providing false and misleading information to U.S. banks about the nature of payments being processed by companies under Rennick's control, prosecutors said in the indictment.
Rennick ran such businesses as My ATM Online, KJB Financial Corp., Account Services Corp. and Check Payment Financial Co.
He was indicted almost immediately after Gambling911.com parent company, Costigan Media, filed its Motion to Intervene in order to obtain information found in seizure affidavits related to the freezing of Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars funds last summer.
Christopher Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher
