Phil Ivey Returns to Tournament PokerFormer Full Tilt Pro Enters APPT Macau |
|
Phil Ivey, widely considered poker’s best player, has returned to the live tournament scene, months after the online poker site he represented was accused of financial crimes. He entered the Asian Pacific Poker Tour Macau main event on Wednesday.
The eight-time bracelet winner has been off the poker radar since April 15’s indictments against operators of the major offshore poker companies. In May he decided to sit out the entire 2011 World Series of Poker in response to the specific allegations against Full Tilt Poker.
He also filed suit against his former employer, citing disappointment and embarrassment that players were not paid their account balances. Ivey was also seeking more than $150 million for “injunctive relief, declaratory relief and damages.”
The company soon fired back at the superstar, stating that he was only trying to help himself and he had declined to pay back a large sum owed to the site.
He later withdrew his lawsuit when rumors began circulating in June that European investors were seeking to purchase the site.
Major news outlets reported last week that a French firm reached a deal with the Justice Department to acquire the company if it is able to settle its civil case. Authorities will not confirm statements from Groupe Bernard Tapie’s attorney.
Full Tilt Poker owes about $150 million to U.S. players and about the same to its foreign base, after allegedly becoming insolvent in the operation of a Ponzi scheme.
In September, Manhattan’s U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara accused Full Tilt Poker’s board members Howard Lederer, Chris Ferguson, and Rafe Furst of working with CEO Ray Bitar to defraud poker players out of more than $440 million over a four-year period.
Ivey’s name has never appeared in a Justice Department filing, and he has not been accused of a crime.
Follow Brian Pempus on Twitter — @brianpempus
Copyright © 2001-2013
CardPlayer.com. All rights reserved.
Comments
texasroadgambler
over 1 year ago
I wonder if Oscar Goodman's firm represents Phil? Someone is going to take his deposition in this matter.
fastmonkey
over 1 year ago
Ok so the biggest scam in poker history has just come off and one of its major front men just saunters back into a tourney like nothing ever happened. R U #$@%^ kidding me??? I lost some serious dough as did every player I know and what...we are just going to forget about it. No way.....
Ivey was the face of Full Tilt, he needs to be held accountable for his actions. What was he paid? Let's start there and where is every other hockey jersey wearing member of the FT mob hiding out?
Where is the honor among men?
texasroadgambler
over 1 year ago
If I were a defense lawyer for FTP and its sponsored representatives, I would argue that players who acted in an unlawful manner, i.e.avoidance of the IGEA, are barred from recovery under any legal theory of torts since they were knowing and wilfull partipants in the scheme.
The Justice Department might make a similar argument under the criminal statutes.
Stay tuned.
fastmonkey
over 1 year ago
Oh really Tex,
So the next time that you are speeding along the highway about ten miles over the limit and crash we'll leave your beaten battered body on the side of the road for the vultures to feed upon. Makes sense as you were in clear violation of the speed limit and therefore not eligible for any assistance even though you were freight trained by a drunken sailor in a semi trailer. You good with that?
My guess is that Ivey will wind up taking a knife in the back from someone who doesn't want to wait for the legal system to work its way through the years of BS. I'm sure that the people watching him draw in his last breath will feel terrible cause it could have been avoided if he would have just kept hiding out in some fancy hotel waiting maybe 30 more years for this whole thing to blow over.
If you profited from FTP in any way other than at the tables you stole money from your friends and fellow poker players period. Karma has a way of working things out, as for Doyle, what did he ever do aside from "Write the book" on poker and promote the game?
texasroadgambler
over 1 year ago
fastmonkey:
I was not attempting to justify what FTP and their coterie of sponsored players have done.
I am pointing out the reality of the civil statutes that provide a defense against recovery under the circumstances. You can be sure that when civil litigation arises in this case that lawyers for the defendants will raise them. The plaintiffs' cases might not evem survive a Motion for Summary Judgment.
I agree the scam has caused great harm.
AlanT
over 1 year ago
The UIGEA did NOT make PLAYING poker illegal. It merely forbid banks and financial institutions from processing transactions to and from internet gambling sites. Whether POKER qualifies as "gambling" is arguable so validity of statute itself is arguable. Nevertheless PLAYING poker was never made illegal. Thus, players were not "knowing and willful participants" in any "scheme."
texasroadgambler
over 1 year ago
AlanT:
The players knew when they deposited their funds into those banks and financial institutions that by definition that those institutions were going to process them at the instructions of FTP. Thus their participation is irrefutable.
As for the legal argument in re poker, it is quite a bit more complex than we can argue here. In any event a ruling in the future is very unlikey to be retroactive to "prior acts" such as this one.
bmpek
over 1 year ago
showing up in macua was not very hard for ivey. the town has always been a hangout for hustlers and sleeze bags. the true test will he be at the bellagio playing the main event. how many of the ripped off will have the balls to confort him.
WPS22
over 1 year ago
bmpek- Your last sentence says it all. And the answer the question is hardly anyone. Tens of thousands will say they would tell him this or tell him that, but when the moment comes they would just walk right by him.
Its also funny that you say Macau has always been a hangout for hustlers and sleeze bags, aren't you from Vegas?
btw most informed people know, or at least believe that Ivey didn't have anything to do w/ the business side of things. There are unknowns like Rafe Furst who were actually on the board. Also, as the article states, the name Phil Ivey doesn't appear on any DOJ statements.
esem
over 1 year ago
What happens to poker players or any gambler that gambles and doesn't have the money to cover their bets? Full Tilt did the same thing. same as cheating. Ever see Casino.
waldy_13
over 1 year ago
wait......srry to all but ive clearly missed something, i kno what ft did and how they deserve punishment but how doest that tie to any of the paid representatives?? can someone just say why exactly this has something to do with ivey?? im not saying it doesnt im cant see how it did?? :/