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Latest Full Tilt Poker Updates, DOJ Amendments and AGCC Hearing

The DOJ have amended their Civil Complaint now alleging that FTP board stole players funds in the light that Full Tilt had only $60m left. Also a French consortium of buyers is still interested in completing a deal to buy Full Tilt Poker including covering player balances and US player money.

Given the fast changing nature of the Full Tilt situation at the moment I’m just going to post a bunch of useful, interesting and key links to resources so everyone can keep up to date on developments.

UPDATE: French Buyers, Legal Challenge to UIGEA & More Updates

The best resources for news on Full Tilt situation as far as I am concerned is subject poker where they have an updating page on the DOJ Amendments of their civil complaint.

more … DOJ’s Civil Complaint Amended, Alleges FTP Stole Player Funds

The thrust of this is that the board has at best mismanaged funds continuing to pay themselves millions despite issues covering player balances and also covering US player deposits when they couldn’t draw down funds from players bank accounts. In addition the DOJ seized at least $104m pre Black Monday.

The revelations are shocking and to find out members of the board were pulling $10m a month right up to Black Monday is inexcusable.

However I can’t help but wonder if this was somehow a half assed and wrong headed idea to keep as much funds away from the hands of the DOJ.

After all while the UIGEA specifically rules against seizure of players funds maybe there was little faith in FTP board that this would be the case given they were getting funds seized along the way and also were unable to draw down deposits from players bank accounts.

I am in no way excusing the way the board have behaved but seeking to find some logic in their actions.

Full Tilt is NOT and never has been a ponzi scheme as one US Attorney for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) said in his announcement. For starters the company was a genuinely highly profitable business in its own right.

Clearly the DOJ doesn’t think FTP was a ponzi scheme either as it would have become a criminal case and not an amendment to current the civil action.

Ferguson and Leaderer are not idiots they must have realised drawing down this much money was crippling the company, unless Bitar really managed to keep everyone in the dark about day to day operations.

Clearly the company was mismanaged, but IMHO it still incredibly strange that intelligent well known poker players with their own reputations to protect and a fundamentally profitable business would just resort to stealing the player balances without reason …

At this point it simply doesn’t add up.

Is it still conceivable that most of those involved really didn’t understand what was going on on a day to day basis ? Or that Ferguson, Leaderer, Ivey et al were under the impression that things were better than they in reality were ?

There is also the small matter that the complaint concerns the appropriating of funds between 2007 and 2011. Bear in mind that the UIGEA was only brought in 2006 and not enacted for a couple of years.

Is it concievable that the much of board dividends MAY have been paid before the problems created by the UIGEA and DoJ ?

Or that Ferguson and others may have actually been paid much of that money when in fact at that point Full Tilt was genuinely profitable and had money separate from the players funds …

Or at the very least maybe to some degree blissfully unaware that something was amiss.

It has been mentioned that Bitar commented that if all the dispensations and the payments to Board members /owner pro’s & Red Pro’s had stopped then this would have been a red flag there was a problem, causing panic and possibly a run on players funds.

Is this the key to explaining why previously bad decisions got made at the time in the hope that the level of DoJ seizures would become managable, or that they could later process deposits and get things under control again ?

It doesn’t make the mis-management right but it would go along way to explaining how the mess got gradually bigger and totally out of hand as DoJ seizures and ultimately Black Money took their toll.

I guess it’s equally conceivable that they have been screwing players funds for years but I find that kind of hard to believe as pre UIGEA there really wouldn’t have been the incentive to run the risk.

Who knows, but I have a feeling that while everyone is currently quick to chuck them all under the bus the reality won’t be quite as black and white as the mainstream media and the over-reactive 2+2 crowd would like it.

UPDATE … Interview with Tom durrrr Dwan about FTP

Which seemingly adds credibility to my suggestion that the mess is more mismanagement than some kind of criminal conspiracy on the part of the FTP Pro’s / Board to defraud or misuse player fund.

Full Tilt may still have Deal with French Investors

On a much more positive note it looks like there maybe another genuine white knight or rather “chevalier blanc” in the shape of a French investment consortium that would seem to have a real chance of going the distance. Lets hope so

more … French Investors Consider Purchasing FTP

What seems most promising is that the has clearly been dialogue with the DOJ and paperwork has been presented to all concerned.

UPDATE: DOJ Move to Seize FTP Board Members Funds

In the light of 10′s of millions of funds being paid out to Full Tilt board and shareholders it now looks like the DoJ are going after funds held personally by the Full Tilt Board.

more … Department of Justice To Seize Full Tilt Board Memebers Funds

This would seem to include property and assets owned by Leaderer, Chris Ferguson, Rafe Furst and also the previously names Bitar. This would amount to approximately $120m between them leaving a remaining $323m that has been paid out to all the other “owners” and shareholders.

These numbers do go some way to explaining how the problem has come about, even if doesn’t justified it. Seemingly with $323m in payments made to Red Pro’s / Shareholders / player owners, IF there had been any changes to those “norm” dispensations it would have inevitably led to chatter in the industry and panic would have started far sooner. It would seem the board (or Bitar on his own) ignored what may have been perceived (wrongly) as a small tempory problem in the hope of time the gap being bridged over time.

Full Tilt Poker Rumours and Latest

Here is your roundup of the latest comments, contributions and opinions over the net …

5+5 … PPA to DOJ: Repay Full Tilt Players in Alleged Ponzi

Reuters … Full Tilt Rejects Ponzi Allegations

CalvinAyre … Unconfirmed AGCC to revoke Full Tilt licence

PokerNewsDaily … AGCC Urged to Delay Hearing until French Deal confirmed

EmergentFool … Raff Furst Statement

The New Yorker … Full Tilt: A Poker Ponzi Scheme?

Ferguson, Leaderer etc will have to make somesort of submission in a couple of weeks to either explain themselves or quite possibly surprise us all and pony up the cash …

I have a feeling that the Full Tilt Poker saga still has a fair few twists and turns left in it yet.

Comment & Discuss

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