Poker site employee Brent Beckley sentenced

Absolute Poker co-founder Brent Beckley was sentenced to 14 months in prison after pleading guilty to violating the UIGEA and committing bank fraud.
Beckley, 32, was the head of payment processing at Absolute Poker starting in 2003 and pled guilty to two charges in December, 2011.
"I fooled myself into thinking that what I was doing was OK," Beckley told U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan.

Despite Beckley having no previous criminal record and making a full surrender Kaplan still felt he deserved prison time saying, “The sentence has to make clear that the government of the United States means business in these types of cases."
Beckley was one of 11 individuals charged when the US Department of Justice pursued legal action against the world’s three biggest online poker rooms in April of 2011.

Ray Bitar, the principal owner of Full Tilt Poker and most high profile of those indicted, surrendered to US authorities earlier this month. Unlike Beckley, Bitar pled not guilty to the charges he’s facing.

While Beckley’s sentencing has been finalized, the matter of player funds still locked up on Absolute Poker has not.
Similarly to former customers at Full Tilt Poker, players with money in their accounts at Absolute Poker are anxiously awaiting some word from the DOJ that there cash might be returned.

Of the three, PokerStars is the sole surviving online poker room, and the only one to return player funds. PokerStars owner Isai Scheinberg remains at large.