In breaking news from New York, Ira Rubin, a payment processor indicted on Black Friday, pleaded guilty to conspiracy in Federal court, according to Bloomberg, and likely faces 18 to 24 months behind bars for his role in the online poker industry prior to April 2011. According to the Black Friday indictments, Rubin and others “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 DOJ also contended that online poker transactions were being attributed to websites such as PetFoodStore.biz and BeddingSuperstore.tv.

Bloomberg noted that Rubin, 53 years old, pleaded guilty to three counts. He originally faced a litany of charges, including money laundering conspiracy, conspiracy to commit bank fraud and wire fraud, and conspiracy to violate the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, or UIGEA. According to Reuters, he admitted to “one count of breaking U.S. laws against internet gambling and one count each of conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud and to participating in a money laundering conspiracy.”

Rubin’s is the latest in a string of guilty pleas from Black Friday defendants. The most recent one prior to Rubin’s came from Brent Beckley, Absolute Poker’s payments guru, who admitted to the judge in the case, “I knew that it was illegal to deceive the banks.” Beckley’s sentencing is scheduled for April, while Rubin’s will come in May.

Keeping a watchful eye on the post-Black Friday developments is the Poker Players Alliance, or PPA, whose Vice President of Player Relations, Rich TheEngineer Muny (pictured), told PocketFives on Tuesday, “This underscores the need to pass legislation to license and regulate the game. It’s time to bring this industry onshore for consumer protections. It’s time to bring clarity to the legality of the situation with online poker and have a consistent national policy so that any potential provider can understand the requirements of offering the game in a concrete fashion.”

According to Bloomberg, Rubin operated out of Costa Rica and helped poker companies “move billions of dollars in illegal gambling proceeds disguised as phony internet merchants. The shell companies Rubin created included a fake golf store and electronics business.” Rubin was arrested last April in Guatemala while trying to travel to Thailand, according to the Wall Street Journal. He’s been detained ever since.

When asked in court if the money Rubin was processing was derived from unlawful internet gambling, the defendant replied, “Yes, your honor,” as outlined in a Reuters article on Tuesday.

According to the Huffington Post, Rubin was involved in payment processing from 2006 until March 2011. The same news outlet added that he was a repeat offender and “faced criminal charges in New York, Massachusetts, Missouri, Nevada, Florida, and Virginia since the 1970s. They say he has yet to pay an $8 million Federal Trade Commission judgment against him because of a payment processing business he operated from 2003 to 2006 that was tied to telemarketing fraud.” The decision to reside in Costa Rica was allegedly partly due to the telemarketing judgment in the United States.

In May, another Black Friday payment processor, Bradley Franzen, pleaded guilty and will be sentenced in August. Franzen admitted to conspiracy to commit bank fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and violating the UIGEA. Read more.

Black Fridayrocked the online poker industry in the United States to its very core, as the three largest U.S.-facing sites at the time – PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and Absolute Poker – jettisoned the U.S. market after the Department of Justice seized the rooms’ associated dot-com domain names. PokerStars quickly paid U.S. players back, while Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker have failed to do so.

Full Tilt is in the process of selling its assets to Groupe Bernard Tapie, although PocketFives was unsuccessful in obtaining an update on the sale on Tuesday. Absolute Poker’s parent company, Blanca Games, is rumored to be liquidating its assets and could be refunding players just 15 to 20 cents on the dollar.

According to the DOJ, Black Friday defendants Chad Elie and John Campos will stand trial starting March 12th.