The first of 11 people associated with the Black Friday indictments has pleaded guilty. According to Bloomberg, Bradley Franzen “told U.S. Magistrate Judge Nathaniel Fox that he owns a company that helps merchants process customer payments. After an internet poker operator contacted him in 2009 to help handle checks from U.S. customers, he lied to banks and created fake companies and websites to hide the payments.” The news outlet added that Franzen will be sentenced in late August and faces up to 30 years behind bars.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Franzen admitted to conspiracy to commit bank fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and violating the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. However, he entered into a plea agreement with Federal prosecutors.

In a Poker Community thread, members of PocketFives.com have been discussing Franzen’s plea. One poster prognosticated that Franzen, despite cooperation, could be in for a long haul in the slammer: “Money laundering is a big deal and this dude will be in prison soon. You don’t plead guilty to this and get slapped on the wrist. The guy will for sure be used as an example.”

Another poster countered by saying that Franzen could get off relatively scot-free: “The guy that cuts the deal first is generally the guy who will testify for the prosecution and sing like a canary. I’ll bet 5:1 that the guy doesn’t see three years in jail.”

Franzen hails from Illinois and Costa Rica, and his plea has made national headlines. News outlets like the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and ESPN have had their eyes on the latest developments in the case.

In an interesting connection, one PocketFives.com member claimed that he knew Franzen on a personal level: “Unreal. This guy was my fraternity brother for four years in college. I knew he ran a payment processing company. Obviously, the extent of his activities is blowing my mind right now.”

Black Friday occurred back on April 15th, when the founders of and payment processors associated with PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and Absolute Poker were indicted in the United States. All three have since abandoned the U.S. market and only one – PokerStars – has begun refunding players.

Along with Franzen, Ryan Lang, Ira Rubin, and Chad Elie were indicted on payment processing charges on April 15th. According to a Department of Justice press release, “The payment processors lied to banks about the nature of the financial transactions they were processing and covered up those lies, by, among other things, creating phony corporations and websites to disguise payments to the poker companies.”

The indictments also revealed that John Campos, Vice Chairman of the Board and part owner of SunFirst Bank in Utah, allegedly accepted a $10 million bank investment in exchange for processing internet gambling transactions. Campos also purportedly pocketed a $20,000 bonus for his troubles. The Government is seeking $3 billion in money laundering penalties and froze 76 bank accounts in 14 countries last month.

On Monday, Federal authorities targeted another 10 sites, including True Poker and DoylesRoom. This time, online wagering on sports appears partly to blame and Government officials charged, “The proceeds from illegal internet gambling are often used to fuel organized crime and support criminal activity.”

The 10 sites in question had their dot-com domain names seized and, in response, DoylesRoom moved its operations to DoylesRoom.ag. Other sites, including Lock Pokerand Bodog, have since taken up residence on dot-eu URLs.

According to Covers.com, one of the sites targeted on Monday, BetEd, has shut its doors after all of its player funds were seized. As part of the latest round of indictments, 11 more bank accounts were frozen and the industry continues to be turned upside down.

Congressman Joe Barton (R-TX, pictured), who is held in high regard by many lawmakers PocketFives.com spoke to this week at an event in Washington, DC, is on the brink of introducing legislation that would legalize and regulate online poker in the United States. Unlike previous efforts, the bill would be referred to the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

In the meantime, check out the PocketFives Poker Legislation forum for the latest from the legislative front.