The ex-CEO of the online poker platform Full Tilt Poker pleaded guilty of having violated the U.S. online gambling laws and his sentence was finally determined – he is not to spend time in prison. At the hearing in Mahnattan, the attorney Arlo Devlin-Brown explained that Reymond Bitar is diagnosed with acute heart failure. Initially, Mr. Bitar was sentenced to serve a lifetime in prison and to relinquish $40 million.
The criminal case started back in 2011 when an overall of eleven people were accused of illegal Internet gambling. The case is known as the United States v. Scheinberg case.
During the last hearing of Bitar, he said that he deeply regreted what he had done and he admitted that he had been aware of the illegal actions he he had overtaken together with other illegal online gambling operators. The U.S. district judge decided to decrease his initial sentence due to his extreme health condition. Loretta Preska even wished Bitar and his relatives good luck.
Among the prosecuted companies were Poker Stars as well as Absolute Poker. The prosecutors stated that the companies misled banks into transferring revenue worth billions to outside companies, which at the time seemed legal to the bank inspectors.
Some of the nine charges that Bitar received included money laundering, illegal gambling operations and money transferring fraud. He pleaded guilty on the account of Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act: fraudulent activities by misleading banks, misleading customers of his gambling website, etc. Assistant Attorney Arlo shared that there was a gap bigger than $300 million between the financial reserve of Full Tilt and the money it owed to its registered members.
After being sentenced for close to thirty-five years in prison, the lawyers of Bitar asked for him not to be sent to prison, due to his poor physical condition. Bitar needs to use a defibrillator in order to breathe properly. After getting accustomed to the condition of Bitar, prosecutors announced that his sentence will not include spending time in prison. Up until now, Bitar has spent over seven years in jails. During that time, he has been negotiating the terms of his final sentence.
The owner of Absolute Poker was given fourteen months, which began last year, after Beckley confessed for cheating banks to process the money he earned from his website. An arrangement between the U.S. Government and Absolute Poker is not yet made.
As to PokerStars, the biggest online poker platform, it accepted the requirement of the U.S. court to relinquish more than $730 million back in 2012, $550 million of which were to compensate the customers of Full Tilt. After the court requirements were fulfilled, PokerStars became the owner of Full Tilt.
The reason why exactly these companies earned such huge profits by cheating with money transactions is that when the U.S. Congress prohibited real-money wagering on gambling sites back in 2006, many online operators were forced to quit.
