Jul 2 - Founder of online gambling site Full Tilt Poker arrested in N.Y.

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The founder of the defunct gambling site Full Tilt Poker, which allegedly owes $350 million to Internet poker players, was arrested in New York as he came back into the country.

Raymond Bitar, who was an equities trader in Los Angeles before est@blishing the offshore website, was taken into custody Monday at John F. Kennedy International Airport. In addition to previous charges of bank fraud, money laundering and gambling, an indictment unsealed before his arrest charged him with defrauding customers.

Bitar, who according to prosecutors had been in Ireland for more than a year, had told Full Tilt Poker customers than their money deposited in the site for poker playing was kept separate from company funds.

Instead, the supposedly secured funds were used, "to pay for Full Tilt operations and to pay Bitar and other owners over $430 million," a statement from the U.S. attorney's office in New York said.

Also accused in the indictment was Nelson Burtnick, the former head of payment processing for the site. He remained at large, the U.S. attorney's office said.

Bitar said in a statement that he returned to the U.S. voluntarily.

"I know that a lot of people are very angry at me," Bitar said. "I understand why. Full Tilt should never have gotten into a position where it could not repay player funds."

The site was shut down in April 2011 by U.S. authorities. Prosecutors alleged that it and other shutdown gambling sites had illegally disguised transactions from players' credit cards by saying they were payments for items such as jewelry and golf balls.

According to the new indictment, Bitar had made several statements that money deposited by customers for poker play was secure. In a 2008 email cited in court documents, Bitar allegedly advised a Full Tilt customer service employee that, "The best we can say is we keep a 100% of customers' funds in segregated accounts."

But when the site, which was registered in Alderney, one of the British Channel Islands, closed down, players worldwide did not get their funds returned. According to the U.S. attorney's office, $350 million is owed to players.

"Full Tilt Poker could not return player money because," the indictment said, "the player money had been spent by the company and distributed to its owners."

Bitar was arraigned Monday evening and pleaded not guilty to the charges. U.S. Magistrate Judge Debra Freeman ordered him held pending the est@blishment of a $2.5-million bond.

Bitar was also ordered to surrender his p a#sport.

Founder of online gambling site Full Tilt Poker arrested in N.Y. - latimes.com

That's !!ed up.[pic] they should just go play at a casino. Can't trust sites like that.

I need to get in on this lawsuit because I lost about 2K on Full Tilt over a 4-5 year span.

whats !!ed up is ppl cant get their money back even the money they used to gamble with thats !!ed up

you wouldn't be owed anything. the people who took your 2k and couldn't deposit it would be though.

......wait, so people knowingly deposit money into a site that is known to be operating offshore to evade laws. Then they turn around and get surprised if these shadeballs steal their money? You're better off with your local bookie or local legal gambling spot

you're not though are you. you're local bookie doesn't have thousands upon thousands of people online every second.

This.
If they're already breaking one law, why wouldn't they break another?

...What? It's not illegal to deposit money in an offshore account to gamble. It's not illegal to place wagers through a local bookie or a casino.

It's illegal to be the one that's laundering and accepting the money.
It's illegal to accept wagers if you're not under specific gaming regulations.

America doesn't give a !! about the gamblers.

Had the gov't not shut down the websites and seized the funds, operations however sleazy would have continued and everyone would have been able to cash out whenever they wanted...yeah they paid the top pros a lot to join and advertise, but the rake they were making was ridiculous and they couldn't really run out of money with that amounts they were raking every couple seconds...[pic]

just my 2 cents

nailed this, it was NOT a ponzy scheme as alleged, however full tilt was not as liquid as it needed to be and revenue WAS mismanaged. The way the gov handled it !!ed everyone, they could have imposed a backtax and fines, but instead they seized everything, effectively shutting down operations which were generating plenty of profit daily.

And don't even get me started on this !! being illegal in the first place, because it's !!ing not, the stupid[..] UIGEA law they used was tacked onto a homeland security bill at the last second and never voted on AND only is specific to bank transfers regarding online "gambling." More controlling of what you use your money for in america lol.. so many failed opportunities for m a#sive tax revenue.

obviously I'm mad lol and jealous of canadians who can use pokerstars. [pic]

i got 5 figures still frozen in there,

hopefully this pokerstars deal comes through


fuggin !![..] howard lederer needs to get locked up too [pic]

damn thats !!ed bro

had 150 bucks in my account when !! went down and i knew right away i would never see that money again, but hey i knew that was a possibility the whole time i played. it was becoming a pain anyways having to put money from my card in one account, send it to another place, then finally that money got to full tilt.

anyone tried disputing it with their credit card companies?

yikes. that sux

That !!ing sucks, bro.......


You need to get that $101.59 back..asap

hah if only

Online??? !! that, take your[..] to Vegas. Free drinks and its legal

^this

he's probably the only "pro" that hasnt won !!...

full tilt held some of my money too but overall i cashed in over 20 racks so its all good