Black Friday’ defendant pleads guilty

Prosecutors alleged that Bradley Franzen acted as a ‘payment processor’ and, along with several accomplices, established phony companies and websites to sell items such as golf balls and jewellery in order to hide online gambling transactions before lying to banks about the operation.

Franzen was charged in addition to eleven others with violating US laws prohibiting online gambling in the ‘Black Friday’ case filed on April 15 by Preet Bharara, United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Janice Fedarcyk, Assistant-Director-In-Charge for the New York Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The Illinois and Costa Rica resident subsequently appeared in front of US Magistrate Judge Frank Maas in a Manhattan Federal court before being released on bail of us$ 200,000, which was secured after his parents put up their home

According to a report from the Bloomberg news service, Franzen has now told US Magistrate Judge Nathaniel Fox that he owns a company that helps merchants to process customer payments. He went on to reveal that he had lied to banks and created fake companies and websites to hide payments received from US-based players after being contacted by an online poker operator in 2009. “I knew that US law prohibits this,” said Franzen.

Franzen could face up to 30 years in prison when he is sentenced on August 26 but has agreed to cooperate with prosecutors and forfeit an unspecified amount of money earned through the scheme in return for a shorter stretch.