According to the Wall Street Journal, Ira Rubin, who was indicted by the United States Department of Justice on Black Friday, has been denied bail and detained. The longstanding news outlet recapped Rubin’s hearing last week in New York: “Federal prosecutors in Manhattan said Ira Rubin had a lengthy criminal history dating back to the 1970s and had an outstanding warrant for contempt of court in a civil case brought by the Federal Trade Commission related to telemarketing fraud.”

U.S. Magistrate Judge James Cott ordered the detainment. According to the indictments unsealed on April 15th, Rubin and other defendants “obtained accounts at U.S. banks for the poker companies. 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.”

Rubin is 52 years old and faces charges of conspiracy to violate the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), violating the UIGEA, operation of an illegal gambling business, conspiracy to commit bank fraud and wire fraud, and money laundering conspiracy. The penalties are up to 30 years in prison and millions of dollars in fines.

The Journal added, “The prosecutor said Mr. Rubin chartered a plane from Costa Rica to Guatemala on the day the indictment was issued and that Mr. Rubin understood he could easily get a fake passport there.” He was picked up in Guatemala in late April and brought back to the United States. According to Reuters, prosecutors believed Rubin was planning to head to Thailand from Guatemala.

Stuart Meissner, Rubin’s legal counsel, told Reuters, “This entire case is a little bit of overkill. This is the U.S. war on gambling as opposed to the U.S. war on terrorism. I don’t think this is a good use of taxpayer resources.”

In late May, according to Bloomberg, Black Friday defendant Bradley Franzen pleaded guilty. 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.”

Franzen, however, has agreed to help prosecutors, so whether he’ll face any jail time as a result of his admission remains to be seen.

According to BusinessWeek, Meissner had asked for Rubin to be released on $300,000 bail “and be allowed to live with his parents in Florida.” The same media source reported, “Rubin has outstanding warrants and criminal cases in Nevada, Massachusetts, Missouri, Florida, New York, and Virginia.”

The news of Rubin’s detainment comes as Congressman Joe Barton (R-TX, pictured) is preparing to introduce legislation to legalize and regulate online poker in the United States. Once finalized, the bill will be referred to the House Energy and Commerce Committee and likely have the backing of Congressmen like Barney Frank (D-MA), John Campbell (R-CA), and Steve Cohen (D-TN).

Also in the House, Campbell has brought forth HR 1174, the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement Act. The bill, which was referred to the Financial Services Committee, is up to 26 co-sponsors on both sides of the aisle, but has yet to be discussed. Last Congressional session, a similar bill introduced by Frank was marked up and approved by the Committee in a 2:1 vote.

The Black Friday indictments have greatly affected the online poker community, which saw PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, Absolute Poker, UB, Players Only, and Victory Poker, among others, flee the U.S. market. The latter site ultimately closed shop and shipped its players to Cake Poker. Meanwhile, DoylesRoom and True Poker were targeted in a second round of indictments on May 23rd.

The Merge Gaming Network, which includes Carbon Pokerand Lock Poker, continues to accept U.S. action. However, Merge is in the midst of a multi-week cutoff of new U.S. players while it catches up on payment processing.