[P E O P L E
NEWS
]
NEWS IN BRIEF
Tiltware board members chase civil complaint dismissal
Tiltware board members Howard Lederer, Chris Ferguson and Rafe Furst have filed motions to dismiss last September’s amended civil complaint, in which they were accused of receiving hundreds of millions of dollars in funds held in player accounts with Full Tilt Poker. The trio, along with CEO Ray Bitar and a number of other shareholders, were alleged to have received distributions totalling more than US$400m, with Ferguson being awarded the most out of those named.
RAY BITAR RELEASED ON BAIL
Family posts bail; Judge Lewis Kaplan removes himself from rest of trial
Full Tilt Poker chief executive Ray Bitar
has been released on bail, although he will continue to be monitored electronically by the federal government after returning to his California home. Judge Paul Englemayer had noted earlier this month that the ?nal decision on granting bail should lie with Judge Lewis Kaplan, however – in line with similar previous cases over which he has presided – Kaplan has recused himself from proceedings on the grounds that he spent 20 years with Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton and Garrison LLP, the law ?rm representing Bitar. Consequently, Englemayer signed off on the bail package, having last week agreed with magistrate judge Debra Freeman that it could be granted. According to poker news site Diamond Flush Poker, no new judge has been selected for the case, and no date given for Bitar’s next court appearance. Potential '?ight risk' The US government had sought to deny the CEO bail earlier this month after he surrendered himself to authorities, deeming him a ?ight risk. However he was released after spending the weekend in custody as his family posted the full US$2.5m bond including $280,000 in cash and $715,000 in secured property. Forbes reports that the remainder of the $2.5m is covered by a warehouse owned by Bitar. He will now return to California for the ?rst time since early 2011, having postponed a visit in the months preceding Black Friday, when he was indicted on several counts including money laundering and operating an illegal gambling business. In a memorandum calling for his pre-trial detention, US attorney Preet Bharara and prosecutor Arlo Devlin Brown suggested: “Bitar concluded for several reasons that an indictment might be imminent.” Earlier this month saw the unsealing of a superseding indictment against Bitar and Full Tilt’s head of payments Nelson
Burtnick, in which three new charges of wire fraud against players were brought against the former chief executive upon his return to US soil. Bitar has pleaded not guilty to all charges. It is unclear what impact Kaplan’s decision to recuse himself will have on Bitar’s sentence, which could theoretically reach a maximum of 145 years. The judge accused the government of “walking away from the prosecution” upon its acceptance of the plea deal from payment processor John Campos, the only Black Friday indictee to be sentenced so far, although he eventually accepted the former banker’s guilty plea to a single misdemeanour charge.
Italy appoints new gambling chief
The Italian government has announced the appointment of Luigi Magistro as the deputy director general for the newly formed Customs and Monopolies Agency (Agenzia delle Dogane e dei Monopoli), with direct responsibility for gambling legislation. He replaces former AAMS director general Raffaele Ferrara, who stepped down early in June ahead of a merger that will combine the regulatory body with the country’s Customs Authority.
US Attorney Preet Bharara and prosecutor Arlo Devlin Brown suggested “Bitar concluded for several reasons that an indictment might be imminent”
Kaplan also recommended an “upward departure” in the sentencing of Absolute Poker director of payments Brent Beckley, potentially leading to more than the recommended 18 months in prison; however, Pokerfuse reports that DevlinBrown has called for a more lenient sentence for Beckley, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges last December. Devlin-Brown, writing on behalf of Bharara, notes that “There is no evidence that Beckley intended to cause ultimate ?nancial losses to banks, and no banks have identi?ed for the government actual losses attributable to Absolute Poker processing.” Beckley is likely to be sentenced by September.
Sports Offshore’s Eremian and Lyons sentenced
Daniel Eremian, the principal of US-facing bookmaker Sports Offshore, has been sentenced to three years in prison and been ordered to forfeit $7.7m after being convicted on counts of racketeering and illegal gambling. The 62-year-old is the brother-in-law of US Representative John Tierney, and has claimed that the politician “knew everything” about the illegal goingson. According to various newspapers in Massachusetts, where he was sentenced, Eremian said: “Tierney is the biggest liar in the world...he knew everything that was going on in my family for years.”
18
www.egrmagazine.com