Ray Bitar surrendered to U.S. authorities
A request has been submitted to Judge Leonard B. Sand in the United States v. Pokerstars et al case by the US Government demanding a brief adjournment with respect to the upcoming deadlines in order to quot;facilitate, and hopefully, to successfully conclude, certain ongoing settlement communicationsrdquo;.
Sharon Cohen Levin of the Asset Forfeiture Unit of the Assistant United States Attorney submitted the letter for adjournment, adding the fuel to the burning speculations that the party referred to in the letter is PokerStars.
Several months ago, PokerStars allegedly started negotiations with the Department of Justice in a bid to acquire the collapsed Full Tilt Poker.
At the same time, Forbes reports that Ray Bitar has surrendered himself to the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York based on the charges filed against him in the Black Friday indictments.
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan have filed a superseding indictment against Bitar detailing fresh allegations regarding Bitars alleged efforts to conceal Full Tilts cash situation following the April 2011 crackdown on online poker, Forbes further reports.
On the top of all recent speculations, an e-mail reportedly written by Bitar to Full Tilt staff based in Dublin, appeared on the respected poker forum Two Plus Two posted anonymously under the moniker PS<3FTP to confirm Full Tilt's reported sales to PokerStars. The Bitars alleged e-mail reads as follows: quot;To all Dublin Staff, By now you probably have heard that I have returned to the US to deal with civil and criminal case that are pending against me in New York. We have all worked hard over the last 15 months to preserve Full Tilts 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. My return to the US is part of this process. I am particularly grateful to all of you here in Dublin for your hard work, patience and understanding during this difficult time. I believe that your hard work and dedication should not go unrecognized, and we have made arrangements for Poker Stars to guarantee all July salaries. You should therefore have no concern about coming to work during this period. After that, we expect that your employment contracts will be assumed by the buyer of the companys assets. For those that need to reach me, I expect to continue to be available by email and phone starting late Monday, New York time. In the meantime, please refer any operational questions to **REDACTED**, and any HR questions to **REDACTED**. Thank you all again. Kind regards, Raymond J Bitarquot;