Department of Justice Issues Statement on Full Tilt Poker Player FundsAuthorities Say Compensation to Victims of Alleged Fraud 'Possible' |
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On Thursday the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York released a statement to the victims of Full Tilt Poker’s alleged fraud of more than $300 million, of which $150 million belongs to U.S. players.
Below is the press release in its entirety:
After the amended complaint in United States v. Pokerstars et al., 11 Civ. 2564 (LBS), was filed on September 22, 2011, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York received a number of new inquiries from individuals regarding the recovery of their funds from Full Tilt Poker.
By way of background, in April of 2011, this Office entered into a domain-name use agreement with Full Tilt Poker. That agreement, among other things, expressly authorized Full Tilt Poker to return player funds to players. However, as the September 22 amended complaint alleges, Full Tilt Poker did not in fact have player funds on hand to return to players. Instead, the amended complaint alleges that Full Tilt Poker had, among other things, (a) transferred significant amounts of players’ real money deposits to principals of the company, while (b) allowing many players to continue to gamble, and “win” and “lose,” with phantom credits in their player accounts.
At this time, this Office, together with the FBI and other agencies, is attempting to trace, secure and forfeit as much as possible of the funds derived from operation of the fraud committed by Full Tilt Poker and its board members that is alleged in the amended complaint. The Office is also attempting to obtain and examine the books and records of Full Tilt Poker. Many of those books and records are kept overseas. The return of forfeited funds to victims of the alleged fraud may be possible, but will depend on several factors, including the successful conclusion of the litigation, the amount of funds seized and ordered forfeited by the court, and compliance with other procedures the Department of Justice may eventually establish regarding return of forfeited funds to victims who lost money as a result of the alleged fraudulent conduct.
We cannot predict the duration of proceedings in this case, other than to state that they will last for many months at the least. We will apprise victims of the alleged fraud of future developments as appropriate. General information regarding what is known as “remission” (i.e., return to victims) of funds that have been seized and forfeited is set forth in Department of Justice regulations found at 28 C.F.R. Part 9.
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Comments
LisaJax
7 years ago
And so you can KISS IT GOODBYE! (All your FTP $$$$$'s that is.)
SighNotAgain
7 years ago
Why would anyone buy Filt Tilt it would be like buying Enron after its crash. The only thing of value Full Tilt has is its software and lets face it that can gotten cheaply by other means.
WPS22
7 years ago
Lisa, What kind of person takes joy in other people being defrauded out of hundreds of millions of dollars? You are pathetic.
LisaJax
7 years ago
Take it easy WPS22, it was a cheap lesson for the online poker players to learn while aiding and abetting an illegal operation. Phil Hellmuth and Annie Duke, et al thank you for the donations.
texasroadgambler
7 years ago
All players hoping for a distribution of funds from any liquidation of the assets from FTP or its directors should take out an insurance policy.
They should buy an option on oceanfront property in Arizona.
Kind_Bud
7 years ago
how do we get a class action suit going?
dawgmeat
7 years ago
The only defense that Howard Lederer and Chris Fergurson could come up with is "We didn't get a penny from FTP during the period when the company was losing player's funds." Other than this they're all guilty in either civil and criminal cases. It's simple as this.
TandG21
7 years ago
Everyone new what the law was but we continued to play.
And now we are looking for a class action lawsuit?
All I know is when I contacted them pryer to BLACK FRI
reguarding my account with them they were not helpfull
just a bunch of bull.Brick and morter from now on.
L2K4FC
7 years ago
I wonder if Lederer, Ferguson, etc ever thought it would end up like this. I bet if they had then they would have opted to let something other than pure greed guide the ship. Too bad for the players and especially for poker in general. I was taking a little break from poker during that time so I didn't get stuck a penny on Tilt or Stars- aces!
shakhtar
7 years ago
The DOJ gets more pathetic every day. Now they're hoping people will see them as the "good guys" trying to recoup their money from the "schemers", when it's their office who created the whole mess with their typical Stasi methods of intimidation on banks and processors who were doing nothing wrong. (That's right, online poker was legal in the US folks, already ruled by a federal court).
Now since they've been caught red handed selling automatic weapons by the truckload to the Mexican Cartels, and have openly lied about it, Eric Holder should be arrested, and his whole gang of goons should be shut down once and for all.
jspazz
7 years ago
so in other words DOJ is out to rob everything that Bitar & co. didn't manage to. Way to go America.
Kind_Bud
7 years ago
looks like were gonna get it back, maybe.
http://www.pokernews.com/news/2011/09/full-tilt-poker-acquisition-agreement-bernard-tapie-11134.htm
takedown
7 years ago
Wow, Thanks Shakhtar, It's so good to hear somebody tell it like it really is and put the blame where it needs to be.This mess was solely created by the DOJ and President Obama is the head of the DOJ. It is at his feet that the blame needs to be laid. My Petition to the white house says just that.The link is below and the comments on the signatures are well worth reading. As for the rest of you jokers, I think some of you work for the government.
http://signon.org/sign/president-obama-stop?source=c.fwd.in&r_by=161170
texasroadgambler
7 years ago
takedown
Satire? It must be. The petition must have been written for a skit on SNL.