US case against Full Tilt ongoing

US PROSECUTORS are still pursuing a case against the Irish divisions of the struggling Full Tilt Poker online gambling business.

The group’s chief executive, Raymond Bitar, last week pleaded not guilty in a New York court to a series of charges alleging that he defrauded the website’s clients of up to $430 million, which was paid to the company’s executives and owners.

Full Tilt’s main operating hub is in the Republic, from where it trades through a number of companies, Pocket Kings and Pocket Kings Consulting, which at one point employed hundreds of people in Cherrywood business park in Dublin.

The US attorney’s office in the southern district of New York, which is prosecuting the case against Mr Bitar, is also continuing to pursue Pocket Kings and Pocket Kings Consulting.

They were named in indictments issued against Full Tilt last year, which also outlined charges against Mr Bitar and his colleagues Howard Lederer, Christopher Ferguson and Rafael Furst.

The prosecution, led by US attorney Preet Bharara, said that by the end of March last year, Full Tilt owed clients around the world more than $390 million but had only $60 million in its bank accounts.

The group’s problems first became public in April 2011, when Mr Bharara first issued proceedings against both it, some of its executives, its rivals Poker Stars and Absolute Poker, and a number of their executives.

Following this the gaming commission in the Channel Island of Alderney, which licensed Full Tilt, enabling it to operate in jurisdictions outside the US, reviewed and then withdrew the group’s permits. This forced the business to announce it was laying off up to 250 people in Dublin.

Bernard Tapie subsequently launched a bid for the Full Tilt group, which fell through. Later reports claimed Poker Stars was attempting to buy the business, but that company has not commented.

Last week, Mr Bitar said that he had been working for the last year to find a solution to the lack of funds to pay Full Tilt clients.