 Ray Bitar, former boss at the once notorious Full Tilt Poker room, is back in the news! He laundered millions through the island of Guernsey, located between the United Kingdom and France, and now the money it seems is heading over to the U.S.A., according to a BBC report.
Ray Bitar used the self-governing British Crown dependency to hide cash from the online gambling platform. The U.S. and Guernsey governments worked together to find the money, and they shared the proceeds under a deal made back in 2015.
The U.S. Treasury Department received £9.5m (about $12.6 million USD) according to BBC.
The island’s officials froze Bitar's bank accounts and provided financial records from between 2012 and 2015 to help authorities in America seize the assets.
Bitar pleaded guilty back in April 2013 to violation of the UIGEA and wire fraud. He was facing decades in prison, but didn't do time. The judge in the case spared him prison because he needed a heart transplant, saying that Bitar going behind bars could be a death sentence for him. In exchange Bitar forfeited $40 million to the government as part of his plea deal. However he never admitted to stealing from former customers of the FTP poker site.
When the website was shut down more than $300 million of player money went missing. About $160 million belonged to Americans, according to the FBI. As of last year, as many as 94 percent of all petitions filed to reclaim Full Tilt Poker money had resulted in proper payment.
Those successful petitions amounted however only to roughly $112 million.
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Ray Bitar, former boss at the once notorious Full Tilt Poker room, is back in the news! He laundered millions through the island of Guernsey, located between the United Kingdom and France, and now the money it seems is heading over to the U.S.A., according to a BBC report.
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