Home / Poker News August 2012 / The Poker Grapevine – Nelson Burtnick Arrested
The Poker Grapevine – Nelson Burtnick Arrested
Posted by: Randy Williams - Thu, 2012-08-02 12:14
Things have really sped up in the Full Tilt Poker/ PokerStars/ DoJ case in the last couple of days. First, the announcement was made that
PokerStars have reached a settlement with the DoJ and that Full Tilt’s players would finally get all their monies back. Then, news broke that Nelson Burtnick, Full Tilt Poker’s former payment processing director (and as such the root of all evil) has been arrested at the airport after he arrived to New Jersey from Dublin.
It has been confirmed by reliable sources that Burtnick had appeared in court and pleaded not guilty to all the charges brought against him, which included money laundering, conspiracy to commit money laundering and bank fraud. He posted a half a million dollar bail and he was released, not before he surrendered all his travel documents, thus essentially renouncing every possibility to leave the country. Burtnick isn’t free to move around wherever he pleases in the US either: his movements have been restricted to certain areas of New Jersey and New York.
Along with former Full Tilt CEO Raymond Bitar, Burtnick was among the 11 individuals indicted on Black Friday. His position at the company obviously made him one of the top suspects. Bitar chose to surrender himself to the US authorities, and upon his arrival he had a surprise waiting for him in the form of a superseding indictment, which leveled additional charges at him. Eventually, Bitar was released too, on a $2.5 million bail.
With all these people in US custody, there are currently only 3 people indicted on Black Friday who haven’t yet turned up in US courts: AP’s Scott Tom is one of them. The other two are PokerStars’ Isai Scheinberg and Paul Tate.
The three people still at large are considered innocent until the charges against them are proven in a US court. The charges are thus far considered mere ‘allegations’ – according to US Attorney Preet Bharara.
