SunFirst Bank Owner and Vice Chairman Charged with Online Gambling

Jon Campos ended up serving only 3 months for allowing his bank (SunTrust) to act as a gambling payment processor for well over $200 million for US poker players.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has commenced a prosecution against 3 of the world’s largest online poker sites. 11 people were indicted on April 15, 2011, for violations of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (UIGEA), money laundering and conspiracy to commit bank fraud. Among the indicted are John Campos, Chad Elie, Isai Scheinbert and Raymond Bitar. Chad Elie was released on $250,000 bond Tuesday, April 19, 2011. John Campos was released on $25,000 bail on Monday, April 18,2011. Campos has to keep in touch with the Utah Probation Department. He also had to surrender his passport.

John Campos is a part-owner of SunFirst Bank. He is also vice chairman of SunFirst Bank’s board of directors. He is charged with setting up accounts with SunFirst Bank to receive payments from U.S. online gamblers in violation of the UIGEA. The payments were made to PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker, two of the three largest online gambling sites listed in the indictments. Mr. Campos is a resident of St. George, Utah. SunFirst Bank is also headquartered in St. George, Utah.

No court date has been set for Mr. Campos. Neal Kaplan, Mr. Campos’ attorney, expects a date to be set in a few weeks. Mr. Campos will be tried in the Manhattan U.S. District Court. Mr. Campos is only being charged with 6 of the 9 counts listed in the indictment. Mr. Elie is being charged with all 9 counts of the indictment, which explains his bail being 10 times greater than Mr. Campos.