Full Tilt Poker Money Hidden By Raymond Bitar In Guernsey Transfe

Posted by Carolyn on Dec 10, 2017 Posted in Poker News | No Comments »

Full Tilt Poker was one of the most popular online poker websites in the world, prior to Black Friday which fell on April 15, 2011. The popular online poker website was shut down by the Department of Justice (DoJ) and thousands of poker players in the United States woke up to the fact that their winnings had vanished in thin air. A recent report from the BBC showed that most of the money had now been discovered by the authorities.

Full Tilt Poker Ponzi Scam

Investigations showed that Full Tilt Poker founder Raymond Bitar and director Chris Ferguson had indulged in mismanagement of funds and schemes that saw millions of dollars disappear. The DoJ accused them of running a Ponzi scheme and claimed that they had stolen $444 million which belonged to Full Tilt players.

Raymond Bitar was convicted after admitting to only a few of the charges filed against him. He reportedly paid back $40 million to the DoJ and the balance could not be recovered as the authorities were not aware where those funds were stashed. Due to health issues, the authorities also decided to give Bitar a free pass and set him free.

Bitar decided to keep a low profile after being released and has not ventured into the poker industry after that. His name surfaced in October 2015 when there were reports that he got married and was looking a lot healthier.

Raymond Bitar Makes Headlines Again

Ray Bitar has once again made the headlines in the poker community after a BBC report confirmed that the authorities had found £10.6 million stashed away in Guernsey. The authorities claim that £9.5 million of this belongs to Bitar.

Guernsey is a part of the Channel islands and is located off the coast of France. The BBC report also went on to say that Guernsey has transferred this amount to the United States based on the agreement the two countries made in 2015. The agreement gave authorities in Guernsey permission to seize bank accounts and financial information.

They have had to search long and hard as the money was carefully hid. Megan Pullum QC, attorney general in Guernsey said that that she was pleased with the efforts of the authorities and said cross-country partnerships like the one with the U.S allowed them to transfer the stolen funds. The authorities were also able to confirm that the amount stashed away pertained to funds stolen from Full Tilt Poker and another case which they did not disclose.

The DoJ had appointed the Garden City Group in 2015 to distribute funds to all U.S poker players who had submitted claims. The repayment process took a couple of years as millions of dollars was repaid and the process has since been completed. There is no information as of now as to what will be done with the recovered funds from Guernsey.

Ray Bitar continues to keep a low profile while Chris Ferguson has been active on the poker circuit since the 2016 WSOP and recently won the 2017 Poker Player of the Year award.

Tags: , , , , ,



Comments are closed.

High Stakes News

Promotional News

Introducing the New and Improved Bad Beat Jackpot 2.0
Prepare for an exhilarating upgrade to our renowned Bad Beat Jackpot, …
Read more

Promo Code TTOPS100 BetOnline.ag Offers 100% Poker Bonus Match and FreeRoll Tournament
BetOnline.ag, a popular online gaming site, has unveiled a new promoti …
Read more

10 reasons to play Poker at BetOnline in 2019
2019 seems to be the year poker players search for a new poker site to …
Read more

UK And EU Poker Players Should Check Out The New One Time Poker Website
Most poker players in the European Union and United Kingdom may not be …
Read more