Over $4 million of these loans have not been repaid.
#Doj full tilt poker full
The amended complaint claims that Lederer personally received $42 million in company funds, while Ferguson was allocated over $85 million in distributions, but only received about $25 million of this sum.Īn unnamed Full Tilt Poker pro received at least $40 million in distributions, while also receiving millions of dollars characterized as loans by Full Tilt. Full Tilt and Absolute Poker, meanwhile, still owe their players millions of dollars. PokerStars has paid more than $120 million to American players, and has had no significant delays in paying its international customer base. Repaying players has been a totally different matter. All three stopped taking American players shortly after the indictment. Those three sites were accused of bank fraud, money laundering, illegal gambling offenses and violating the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. Lederer, Ferguson and Furst were not included in the original April 15 indictment against the founders of Full Tilt Poker, PokerStars and Absolute Poker. “Full Tilt Poker allowed players to gamble with - and lose to other players - this phantom money that Full Tilt Poker never actually collected or possessed,” the DOJ said in a memo.
The DOJ said that by the end of March, Full Tilt Poker owed approximately $390 million to players worldwide, including $150 million to American players, but had less than $60 million in its bank accounts.
The amended complaint alleges that Full Tilt mixed player funds with operating funds, despite public claims to the contrary by the site. Lederer, Ferguson, former CEO Ray Bitar and Rafael "Rafe" Furst, all owners of Full Tilt Poker, are accused of distributing approximately $443 million to themselves and other owners of the company. “Full Tilt 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.” “Full Tilt was not a legitimate poker company, but a global Ponzi scheme,” Bharara said in a statement. Attorney from the Southern District of New York.
The DOJ filed a motion to amend an earlier civil complaint against Full Tilt Poker to include “additional allegations, claims, and defendants concerning a fraudulent scheme by Full Tilt Poker and its Board of Directors concerning the misuse of players’ funds,” according to a memorandum sent out by Preet Bharara, U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) said on Tuesday that Full Tilt Poker operated as a “global Ponzi scheme” and that its primary owners, including poker professionals Howard Lederer and Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, defrauded the site’s players out of hundreds of millions of dollars.
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