Black Friday Defendant Turns Himself In

Full Tilt Poker's Ray Bitar has turned himself in to US authorities to face trial for the charges he faces as part of the Black Friday indictments.

US Financial news service Forbes is reporting that federal authorities have filed a superseding indictment against the Full Tilt Executive, charging him with attempting to conceal the company's cash after the events of Black Friday.

An email written Bitar to his Full Tilt Staff in Dublin was leaked on poker forum website Two Plus Two indicates that turning himself in to authorities is part of a process that was required to fulfill a purchase of Full Tilt Poker by rival firm PokerStars.

The email reads:

"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 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. 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 company’s 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 Bitar"