Full Tilt Founder Awaits Heart Transplant
This was published 11-04-2013
The Guardian revealed this week that co-founder of Full Tilt Poker, Ray Bitar is waiting for a heart transplant in California. The information was revealed within the context of an article relating to a plea bargain that has been reached between the 41 year old and the US Departmentof Justice, based on Bitar’s poor health.
Bitar faces multiple charges against him, including bank fraud and money laundering, and, more seriously, charges which were brought against him later by Preet Bharara, US attorney for the southern district of New York, for running a Ponzi style scheme and plundering millions from unsuspecting and trusting players. Bitar is alleged to have “bluffed his player-customers and fixed the game against them as part of an international Ponzi scheme that left players empty-handed.”
“Full Tilt insiders lined their own pockets with funds picked from the pockets of their most loyal customers while blithely lying to both players and the public alike about the safety and security of the money deposited with the company,” Bharara has charged.
However, his deteriorating health has resulted in Bitar agreeing to drop his defence against the charges and striking a plea bargain with authorities which will no doubt lower his sentence. Bitar was facing up to 65 years in prison for the charges against him when he returned willingly to the US in July last year, saying then in a statement: “I know a lot of people are very angry with me. Full Tilt should never have gotten into a position where it could not repay player funds.”
Ray Bitar is the second among the eleven former Full Tilt Poker executives to be charged by the US Department of Justice. No further details have been disclosed about Bitar’s condition, nor about the plea bargain he has struck with the DOJ and how many years – if any – he will need to spend behind bars, but it stands to reason that this information will be published in due time.
