Earlier today Manhattan’s U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara claimed that Full Tilt Poker and its board of directors operated the company “as a massive Ponzi scheme against its own players.”
Federal prosecutors working on behalf of the United States Department of Justice are filling papers as part of a civil money laundering complaint that alleges that the poker site improperly used player funds to pay it board of directors and online poker players Howard Lederer, Rafael “Rafe” Furst and Chris “Jesus” Ferguson over $440 million.
Prosecutors have amended the complaint that names Bitar, Lederer, Ferguson and Furst, adding them to the original complaint which was filed on April 15, 2011. The proposed amended complaint claims that in 2008 and 2009 Full Tilt sent emails to its players, assuring players that “unlike some companies in our industry, we completely understand and accept that your account money belongs to you, not Full Tilt Poker.” The new complaint says that Full Tilt Poker did not have enough funds to repay players at the time and that on March 31, 2011, Full Tilt Poker only had roughly $60 million in its banks accounts while owing $390 million to players around the world, including $150 million in the U.S. alone. In other words, Full Tilt Poker was nearly broke before Black Friday.
In today’s statement, Mr. Bharara said Full Tilt Poker “cheated and abused its own players to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars” and that “insiders lined their own pockets with funds picked from the pockets of their most loyal customers while blithely lying to both players and the public alike about the safety and security of the money deposited with the company.”
wowsa does this mean that those funds could be taken from the pros, like anything stolen does in america, or do you think they were paid in foreign funds in a foreign country and if so would those monies be protected.
It really is hard to believe anyone thinks they can get away with Ponzi schemes, its a house of cards that will eventually fall.
Where do we sign up for our civil lawsuit
hey in a lighter note…..i guess black friday didn’t stop online poker from sending players to the 2011 WSOP….look we sent Howard Lederer, Rafael “Rafe” Furst and Chris “Jesus” Ferguson…lol
I’ve yet to find a site that has realistic deals and kosher play. These sites just go to show that there isn’t a person alive who has moral fortitude and can run a site without getting overly greedy. wpt even ruined subscription poker…and that (I thought) was darn near impossible.