Nelson Burtnick, Full Tilt Poker’s former head of payment processing and one of the 11 people named in the Black Friday indictments, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and gambling charges in a Manhattan U.S. District Court on Wednesday.

Burtnick, 41, admitted to disguising transfers of funds from U.S. poker players to rooms so that banks would not know the money was for online gambling. Transactions were made to look like they were for businesses such as golf stores so that they would not raise any red flags.

“We had to do this type of deception to enable U.S. poker players to load their accounts,” Burtnick confessed to U.S. Magistrate Judge Gabriel Gorenstein. “I know that what I did was wrong.”

Sentencing has been set for December 19. Burtnick faces up to 15 years in prison, although he has agreed to cooperate with the United States Government in its ongoing efforts against online gambling operators. As such, prosecutors will likely recommend leniency in his sentencing. Regardless, Burtnick is required to forfeit all of the money he made as the result of his illegal actions plus any salary he may still be owed. He must also pay restitution, although the exact dollar amount is unknown at this time.

Burtnick was arrested on July 31, 2012 upon his arrival in New Jersey from his home in Dublin. When he appeared in court the following day, he pleaded not guilty on all charges. He was released on $500,000 bond and had his travel restricted to certain parts of New Jersey and New York.

Earlier in the month, Full Tilt Poker CEO Ray Bitar surrendered to authorities. At the same time, the U.S. Attorney’s Office unsealed a superseding indictmentthat updated the charges against Bitar(pictured) and Burtnick. Some of the more shocking parts of the superseding indictment were the revelations of various lies spun by those in charge, primarily Bitar, in order to prevent those outside the company from realizing that Full Tilt had burned through player funds and did not have enough money to pay its customers.

For example, a few days after Black Friday, the site issued a press release apologizing for payment delays, citing “numerous legal and jurisdictional issues” as the problem.

In the superseding indictment, the Government said that was an outright lie: “In truth and in fact, however, Full Tilt Poker could not return player money because, as Bitar knew, the player money had been spent by the company and distributed to its owners. Indeed, Full Tilt Poker’s internal financial statements reported that as of March 31, 2011, the company owed $390 million to players around the world, but had less than $60 million in its bank accounts.”

Additionally, the U.S. Government claimed, “As Bitar was aware, Full Tilt Poker was entirely dependent on new player deposits to meet the backlog of player withdrawal requests and cover the company’s operating expenses. For example, on or about June 10, 2011, [Full Tilt Poker’s Director of Finance] e-mailed company financial reports to Bitar showing that despite ‘$8 to $9 million per week’ from new deposits, the company only had only $2.1 million in ‘available funds’ and had ‘current outstanding payments’ due of $29.1 million, including $12.5 million to pay in ‘backlogged player withdrawal requests.'”

The superseding indictment further alleged that even though Bitar and Burtnick were fully aware of all of the financial problems and were actively attempting to cover them up, both were drawing salaries after Black Friday.

Of the 11 people named in the original Black Friday indictment, just three – PokerStarsexecutives Isai Scheinberg and Paul Tate and Absolute Poker co-founder Scott Tom – have yet to be apprehended by U.S. law enforcement.