Full Tilt Poker CEO Released on Bail
This was published 12-07-2012Chief Executive Officer of Full Tilt Poker, Ray Bitar, was released on bail on Monday evening and was making his way home toGlendora,California, for the first time in over a year. This follows an agreement that was reached between Bitar’s attorneys and prosecutors and signed by Federal Judge Paul Engelmayer. Prosecutors were originally against granting bail to Bitar as they argued that he could flee the country due to the serious charges against him.
In accordance with the terms of the bail, Bitar will be monitored electronically by the feds and post a $2.5 million personal recognizance bond and will also add a warehouse owned by him to the cash and property being pledged. Bitar’s bail commitments were backed by five people who are evidently close to him.
Bitar was made to remain in theNew Yorkarea for 48 hours after the bail was granted in order for him to disclose all the assets which are held by him in theU.S.as well as abroad to federal prosecutors.
Bail was granted to Bitar a week after he was arrested upon his arrival atJohnF.KennedyInternationalAirport. He has been charged with running a Ponzi scheme and directing money from the online poker site to his own personal accounts. Bitar is also accused of conspiring to lie to thousands ofU.S.players who still have their funds amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars tied up. Should Bitar be convicted on all counts against him he faces up to 145 years in jail. Bitar’s lawyers claim that he has spent the last couple of months inIrelandin an endeavor to find a solution for the company.
Bitar was instrumental in building Full Tilt Poker into one of the biggest online poker companies in the world by defying a claim by the Department of Justice that online poker violatedU.S.law.
