Guernsey Returns Full Tilt Laundered Money to FBI

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Saturday, December 23rd, 2017 | Written by Stephen Smith

The self-governed British dependency of Guernsey recently announced that it had returned over US$13.15 million to the United States from the bank account of Ray Bitar, the disgraced former CEO of Full Tilt Poker. US officials identified the funds as forming part of money connected to the the “Black Friday” indictments in which Bitar and ten other people, as well as three major offshore online poker companies were targeted for a range of criminal activities, including money laundering.

The announcement was made during a visit by dependency officials to the Department of Justice in the nation’s capital, and marked the first time that Guernsey had transferred money to the US under an asset-sharing deal agreed in 2015.

Official Statement from Guernsey

A statement released on behalf of the Guernsey said that US prosecutors issued three Mutual Legal Assistance requests to authorities in Guernsey between November 2012 and June 2015. They requested assistance with tracking, restraining, seizing, and recovering the laundered money, resulting in Guernsey authorities restraining the relevant bank accounts and providing account records to support the investigation and forfeiture by US investigators.

Ray Bitar

In 2013, Bitar was facing a civil forfeiture of around $40 million when he struck a plea bargain that kept him out of prison. At the time, the judge dealt leniently with Bitar who supposedly had a heart defect and needed a transplant as he apparently had only a few months left to live.

“The driving factor in this sentence is Mr. Bitar’s precarious health condition. The Federal Bureau of Prisons is not able to provide the care that Mr. Bitar needs. Prison almost undoubtedly would kill him. The possibility of prison would make Mr. Bitar ineligible for a heart transplant, which would also impose a death sentence.” stated the Judge at the time:

Around a year later, however, pictures of a healthy-looking Bitar appeared in photos taken at his rather lavish wedding, bringing the medical testimony provided at his trial into question.

The original owners of Full Tilt Poker, including Bitar, had been suspected of laundering several hundred million dollars of corporate distributions in the years leading up to the Black Friday crackdown. The company closed in 2011 owing over $350 million to depositors. Thankfully, many of the players on the site were eventually repaid thanks to a separate settlements the US made with PokerStars, which saw the site acquire Full Tilt’s assets. Even so, this doesn’t change the fact that the owners at Full Tilt stole all of this money from the world of online poker.

$350m in Missing Funds

The money seized from his account is a small dent in the $350 million in debt racked up by the company, with the $13.1 million recently seized from Bitar bringing the total amount of money recovered from him at $40 million. Therefore, the money transferred to the United States is around a half of all the funds seized from Bitar, with the money subsequently split between the United States and Guernsey in accordance with their asset-sharing agreement.

The Attorney General of Guernsey said that the case showcases how dedicated and persistent law enforcement officers on the island are when it comes to working with authorities overseas and bringing cases to a successful close, even if it takes years. The case represents a fine example of tracing and identifying crime proceeds across several jurisdictions and repatriating these proceeds.

Similarly, Guernsey’s Procurer Megan Pullum QC issued the following statement: “Guernsey has an ongoing and exemplary commitment to international co-operation and mutual legal assistance and we are therefore extremely pleased to announce this asset share.”

Meanwhile, John Cronan, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General at United States DOJ, praised the fine job the two countries do in identifying criminals trying to use Guernsey’s banks for their nefarious activities.

Given that the seizing agency for the case was the FBI, the money transferred to the United States from Guernsey is to be deposited into the Department of Justice’s Assets Forfeiture Fund.