CEO Ray Bitar Surrenders To The FBI
Ray Bitar, CEO of the erstwhile Full Tilt Poker returned to the US after almost 15-months of dodging the Justice Department on the criminal indictments lodged against him. Bitar turned himself in at the JFK airport, at New York when his plane from Ireland landed on American soil. Bitar pleaded guilty at a Manhattan court, where he is currently held under a $2.5 million bond.
Bitar is among the 11 others who were charged by the FBI following Black Friday in April last year. On Monday, when Bitar flew in to surrender, the 40-year-old was hit with another case, accusing him of conning poker players. Unfortunately, for Bitar, he now faces up to 145 years in prison, to his previous 65 years. Had he not surrendered, the government was planning to extradite him with the help of the Irish authorities.
Bitar in an email statement to the Associated Press said, “I know that a lot of people are very angry at me. I understand why. Full Tilt should never have gotten into a position where it could not repay player funds.”
Many poker pros who are caught in this nasty mess, have voiced out their opinions over blogs and twitter. Blair Hinkle, who has his $1 million stuck within the invisible walls of Full Tilt Poker, believes that Bitar is the worst among the 11 who were charged by the Justice Department. Daniel Negreanu stated in his blog that Bitar probably deserves some torturous physical punishment for his wrongdoings.
Ray Bitar is charged on counts of betraying his former customers that include his poker players, by using their winnings to pay for Full Tilt Poker’s internal operations. Bitar’s other charges include cashing out on $430 million of customer’s money for himself and other Full Tilt owners. Additionally $350 million remains unreturned to players from outside the United States. Bitar had allegedly told his employees to cover up for the company’s finances and lie about its problems. This issue became public when Full Tilt Poker was hit with payment processing issues, which created “phantom funds” on their site.
In spite of what he had done, Bitar continued to loot customers’ money even after April 15 of 2011. After subsequently being caught and deemed illegal by the Justice Department on Black Friday, Bitar continued to lure customers and their money into Full Tilt insisting that their cash was safe. His recent email statement to Two Plus Two, spoke of possible repayments to Full Tilt Poker’s former employees, once PokerStars buys the company. However, PokerStars had denied such a possibility.
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