Ray Bitar, CEO of Full Tilt Poker, Surrendered to U.S. Authorities

Chief executive officer of Full Tilt Poker, Ray Bitar, was indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice on Black Friday. One of 11 men that were indicted in the case, Bitar surrendered to U.S. authorities today.

PokerNews.com has confirmation from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York that Bitar gave himself up to the FBI in New York. For his role at Full Tilt poker, Bitar faces five charges that include operation of illegal gambling business, conspiracy to violate the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), and money laundering conspiracy.

The news update started on the TwoPlusTwo forums when an internal email was leaked by a reputable member of the forums. The email was allegedly sent to staffers in Ireland by Bitar and offers up explanations that lean to completing the pending deal with the Department of Justice and PokerStars and that his return to the U.S. is part of the process of moving forward.

Part of Bitar's email:

"We have all worked hard over the last 15 months to preserve Full Tilt’s assets and potential in order to provide for the repayment of all players, and that continues to be our top priority. It is as important as ever that we all do everything possible to make that happen and, hopefully our deal with Poker Stars will very soon make our goal a reality."

PokerNews.com received an updated indictment that was signed by U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara and the indictment is details Bitar's efforts to cover up Full Tilt Poker's liquidity problems after the April 15th, 2011 release date of the original indictment.

Stay tuned for updates as they come in.

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