Home / Poker News July 2012 / Ray Bitar Turns Himself In
Ray Bitar Turns Himself In
Posted by: Jo Martin - Tue, 2012-07-03 05:34
Raymond Bitar, the man behind Full Tilt Poker, the CEO who has been indicted on Black Friday together with 10 other people, has apparently given himself up to US authorities on Monday. He was reportedly arrested at JFK soon after he landed. The US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York – the entity which issued the Black Friday indictments – has already confirmed that Bitar was indeed in the custody of US Authorities.
Bitar is facing quite a litany of charges for his Full Tilt Poker adventure, including conspiracy to commit bank fraud, wire fraud, money laundering, the direct violation of the UIGEA and conspiracy to violate the UIGEA. According to US Attorney Preet Bharara, Bitar’s crimes also include game fixing, as Bitar had apparently manipulated the games against Full Tilt players to run the site as a large-scale international Ponzi-scheme. The new allegations represent quite a twist in the case because thus far, game fixing hasn’t really come up in the Full Tilt case.
Everything considered, Bitar is looking at a maximum of 145 years in jail.
According to an internal email made public on one of the popular
online poker forums, which Bitar allegedly wrote to Full Tilt’s employees in Ireland, his move is part of the deal Full Tilt has struck with PokerStars and the US DoJ regarding the takeover of the operation and the refunding of Full Tilt’s players.
In the said email, Bitar also thanked staffers for their hard work over the last 15 months to preserve the assets of the company and once again re-iterated the fact that it was his and Full Tilt’s top priority to repay slighted players.
He also expressed hope that the PokerStars deal would indeed materialize and that it would make it possible for players to recover their monies in full.
Nelson Burtnick was also named in the above said indictment. He faces charges on 8 counts.
