Sentencing delays are likely in the resolution of the Department of Justice’s case against Absolute Poker exec Brent Beckley, whose attorney filed last week for a temporary adjournment regarding Beckley’s sentencing process.
Attorney Mark D. Harris of the New Yok law firm Proskauer Rose LLP, representing Beckley, requested additional time in a June 4 filing to respond to presiding judge Lewis A. Kaplan’s recommendation for an “upward departure” for Beckley, in light of the millions involved in the Absolute Poker.
The recommended departure for Beckley would increase his sentence from the 12-18 months called for under general sentencing guidelines.
Beckley, who served as an AP vice president, had duties including the securing of online-payment processors, placing him squarely in the sights of US prosecutors.
Beckley is the step-brother of AP co-founder Scott Tom and was a member of the University of Montana’s Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, though he was not one of the generally cited co-founders of Absolute, as often misreported elsewhere.
In the latest filing, Harris requested to a two-week delay, which would push the sentencing date for Beckley to July 23rd, but noted that previously scheduled vacations for both a law firm partner and for chief DOJ prosecutor Arlo Devlin-Brown occupied large chunks of the mid-summer calendar, and that a sentencing date in September was also acceptable.
According to the filing, Devlin-Brown’s office had “no objection” to the delay request.
