Two of the 11 individuals who were named in the indictment unsealed by the United States District Court of the Southern District of New York on Black Fridayhave reached plea agreements with Federal prosecutors, allowing them to avoid substantial jail time. Chad Elie, an admitted online poker payment processor, pleaded guilty to one of the counts he faced and will now accept a relatively short prison stay and a hefty fine. John Campos, a bank executive, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor.

Elie faced nine counts in the April 15th indictment: three counts of violating Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), conspiracy to violate the UIGEA, three counts of operating an illegal gambling business, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. On Monday, the 32-year-old Las Vegas man pleaded guilty in a Manhattan court to the lone charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud.

U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan asked Elie bluntly to make certain there was no misunderstanding, “You are pleading guilty because you are guilty?”

“Yes, your honor, I know that my conduct was wrong,” Elie admitted.

According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Goldstein, Elie has agreed to turn over $500,000 he made from his payment processing business and forfeit rights to his interest in another $25 million currently held in various payment processing accounts. Additionally, the judge has agreed to stay within the sentencing guidelines of six to 12 months in prison rather than seeking the maximum of five years. Elie walked away from court free on a $250,000 bond and must return on October 3rd for sentencing.

Campos, the Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors and Co-Owner of SunFirst Bank in Utah who worked with Elie to process payments, followed up Elie’s plea deal with one of his own on Tuesday, according to Forbes. Campos looks like he will get off very lightly after pleading guilty to a single misdemeanor charge.

Both Elie and Campos were scheduled to stand trial on April 9th, so their plea deals were a way to avoid the possibility of extremely long prison terms. Federal prosecutors had lined up Daniel Tzvetkoff (pictured), former owner of payment processing company Intabill, to testify against the two men, so they were possibly concerned about their chances of victory in the courtroom. Read more.

Elie and Campos had attempted, unsuccessfully, to have the charges thrown out. Their legal teams pointed in part to the December clarification of the Wire Act of 1961by the U.S. Department of Justice. In that clarification, the DOJ said that the Wire Act only applies to online sports betting. Campos’ attorney, Fred Hafetz, also argued that the UIGEA exempts financial transaction companies from criminal liability. Kaplan would have nothing of it, however, saying, “How do you make the leap from SunFirst being exempt to any of the defendants in this case being exempt?”

Elie’s representation, former U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement, tried to argue that because the online poker firms were based offshore, his client was not in violation of the Illegal Gambling Business Act (IGBA) because that law requires that the illegal business take place on American soil. Kaplan did not agree with Clement’s opinion, saying that gambling has evolved in such a way that was not foreseen when the IGBA and other laws were written. Therefore, just because the business wasn’t located specifically in the U.S. doesn’t mean it still didn’t commit an illegal act.

Interestingly, the same Forbes articleopines that the plea deals may have been desired as much by the Feds as they were by Elie and Campos: “The fact that Federal prosecutors agreed to let Campos plead to a misdemeanor indicates that they wanted to avoid a trial that could have had wide-reaching consequences and impacted the Government’s case against the indicted founders of PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker.”