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Comment RSSFull Tilt CEO Arrested
Written by Pace LattinJuly 4, 2012 # 12:56 pm # Industry News, Specials # 5 Comments
Raymond Bitar, the CEO of the Full Tilt Poker Gambling empire was finally arrested after surrendering to US authorities. He was already arranged in court and plead not-guilty to a variety of charges including money laundering plus a litany of fraud charges claiming Full Tilt cheated players.
According to MSNBC:
Full Tilt and Bitar have denied the Ponzi scheme accusations.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Debra Freeman at Monday’s court hearing denied a prosecutor’s request to refuse bail for Bitar, and set his release on a $2.5 million bond. He will, however, remain jailed until all the bail conditions are met.
Prosecutor Arlo Devlin-Brown said Bitar’s decision to stay in Ireland rather than face U.S. charges showed he was at risk of flight. Devlin-Brown said that Bitar had remained in Ireland to operate Full Tilt’s fraud against its players.
Since unveiling the case, prosecutors have expanded both their civil and criminal charges against Full Tilt. They say it operates as a Ponzi scheme and paid its directors more than $440 million while defrauding players, even after the charges were filed.
Prosecutors say Full Tilt, founded in 2004, has taken in about $1 billion from players in the United States. They estimate that Full Tilt still owes $350 million to customers in the United States.
“I know that a lot of people are very angry at me. I understand why,” Bitar said in a statement emailed to El Reg. “Full Tilt should never have gotten into a position where it could not repay player funds. For the last 15 months, I have worked hard on possible solutions to get the players repaid. Returning today is part of that process.
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Written by Pace Lattin
Pace Lattin is one of the top experts in interactive advertising, affiliate marketing. Pace Lattin is known for his dedication to ethics in marketing, and focus on compliance and fraud in the industry, and has written numerous articles for publications from MediaPost, ClickZ, ADOTAS and his own blogs.
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This guy owes me money!
Serves people right for thinking they could gamble online. Seriously…just go to Vegas or AC if you want to gamble…gambling online is a double gamble.
Jeff Zelaya recently posted..The 5 Essential Principles of Building a Personal Brand While in College
Yeah, Jeff how dare those silly individuals think they’re free to do with their money what they please. They definitely need to ask for your or the government’s permission first. Have you been to North Korea? It may be perfect for you.
Jeff, you should have never gambled with offshore poker companies/offshore banks in the first place when you knew it was illegal to do so and you run the risk of losing all your money! The players all knew what they were doing and what they are feared happening actually happened! Risk vs. Reward!
Looks like we’ll have to wait and see what happens. Online gambling is a competitive as it is, so I can see why he would be accused of cheating. Personally, I would rather go to Vegas if I had to gamble because unlike online gambling, waitresses bring players “free” drinks.
Scott recently posted..Jet Ski Woman Helps Boating Accident Victims