Full Tilt Poker CEO Ray Bitar is currently in FBI custody, according to officials close to the incident.

Bitar was arrested this morning at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.

On April 15, 2011, Bitar was charged by the Ministry of Justice with bank fraud, money laundering, illegal gambling crimes, and violations of the UIGEA Act on illegal internet gambling.

And according to an alternative indictment released today, the DOJ is seeking $2.54 billion and the forfeiture of all company assets.

Judge Bitar appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Debra Freeman this afternoon, according to a Justice Department announcement.

"He's one of the last people to be involved in the Black Friday case," said Joe Kelly, a business law professor and gambling law expert at the Buffalo State. "The authorities want to put this behind them and get it done with some kind of plea deal that could benefit everyone."

After the original Black Friday indictment, Full Tilt Poker suspended its business in the United States. Last summer, it lost its online gambling license because it was unable to return its player deposit to any customers around the world.

A new alternative indictment released Monday provides more details on how Bitar-led Full Tilt Poker moved money in and out of the United States. After the Black Friday indictment, Bitar allegedly instructed Full Tilt employees to tell customers about the safety of money and Bitar and its actions.

"In order to encourage players to deposit money with full tilt poker, defendant Raymond Bitar directed full tilt poker employees to ensure that the player deposit is kept in an account 'separated and separate' from the company's operating account," the indictment reads. 파워볼사이트

"In fact and in fact, and as Vitar is well aware, Full Tilt Poker did not protect player funding from a separate account, instead using it for whatever purpose Vitar directed. As a result, when Full Tilt Poker was forced to shut down in the United States in April 2011, and internationally in June 2011, it was unable to repay the approximately $350 million it lost to players around the world.

"However, as Bitar knows well, these expressions are simply lies to fraudulently entice customers to do business with Full Tilt Poker and leave the money to Full Tilt Poker."

The indictment cited emails and forum posts addressing customers using language sent by Bitar to convince them that deposits were held separately from operating expenses.

"I'm not sure where most of the information in this thread came from," reads one forum post cited in the indictment. "But I want to clarify the most important bad information. Full tilt poker players' funds are kept in multiple deposit accounts around the world, all separate from our operating accounts. The funds are transferred to full tilt poker players' deposit accounts only after we get the money."

According to the indictment, the forum post is not different from the truth.

"Full Tilt Poker has never protected player funding with a separate account in history," the indictment reads.

"Full Tilt Poker transferred player funds collected from third-party payment processors to company bank accounts, thereby combining them with company funds. Full Tilt Poker used proceeds from these mixed company/player bank accounts, as instructed by Bitar, which included paying for the company's operations and paying Bitar and its other owners more than $430 million in total from 2007 or 2007 to April 2011. Of these, Bitar received at least about $41 million in salary and "profit sharing" from these mixed accounts," the indictment added.

Bitar pointed out in an email that 'we are not banks', which means 'we may act like banks' and therefore customer funds will 'always be at risk'."

Because Bitar was using player funds to fund its operations, the indictment alleges that Full Tilt used extraordinary measures to hide their cash shortfall from the Alderney Gambling Control Board, which requires players to "keep 100% of the money owed in cash."

"To hide that the company did not hold 100% of the player's deposit in cash, and in reality simply used the player's funds to cover operating expenses and pay the company's owners - defendant Raymond Bitar directed the financial director of Full Tilt Poker to inflate the company's 'cash' amount," the indictment reads.

According to the indictment, Bitar told the finance director, "Third-party payment processors owe Full Tilt Poker, but never paid the company, and in many cases they will never pay because the processor stole money or seized funds under a U.S. court order."