U.S. Alleges Full Tilt Poker Was Ponzi Scheme

[Bosonic]

Source: WSJ

The U.S. Justice Department on Tuesday accused poker celebrities Howard Lederer and Christopher Ferguson among other executives of a major poker website of defrauding poker players out of more than $300 million.

The U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York filed a motion Tuesday to amend an earlier civil complaint to allege that Mr. Ferguson, Mr. Lederer and two other directors for the website, Full Tilt Poker, operated what the Justice Department says was a Ponzi scheme that allowed the company to pay out $444 million to themselves and other owners, which included other famous poker players.

In the complaint, the government alleges Full Tilt executives misrepresented to the website's players that the money the company was supposed to be holding in player accounts was safely held when it was actually being used for other purposes, including owner profits.

Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904106704576582741398633386.html?mod=e2tw

[BeyondGeography]

1. Argh

[Kingofalldems]

2. Not Jesus! No!

[whistler162]

3. WOW... online poker a scam... who'd a thunk it!

[Posteritatis]

9. I know, right? (nt)

[BobbyBoring]

4. At least DOJ has their priorities in order!

Ignore the 14 trillion Ponzi scheme that Goldman Sachs, Chase, Barclays, etc pulled and go after on line poker~

[w0nderer]

5. they don't like rolled up newspaper more than any other mutt

BAD dog, don't bite master *slaps hard across nose with rolled news paper*

:sarcasm:

as a side issue, i don't hit dogs,
no dogs were damaged during the writing, planning or research of this post
no dogs were even imaginatively damaged during the posting of said post

[BeyondGeography]

6. Maybe they'll donate next time

[tanyev]

7. Well now they've ruined Rick Parry's plan to replace Social Security.

[7wo7rees]

8. I find this HARD to believe. USDOJ is bluffing you.

1. Companies registered to the UK Gaming Commission, located on The Isle of Man, do not pay U.S. taxes.
2. Millions of players elected to play online, and not play in the U.S. casinos that DO pay taxes.
3. The US Govt wishes it had a "blood funnel" into this industry to soak up more revenue.
4. To go about it legally, the US Govt would have to legalize online gaming, which they vowed the casinos they would never do.
5. The DOJ was called in to pillage the largest gaming site in the US to get its pound of flesh.

I think you will hear Ferguson and others come out publicly to denounce the complaint.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

10. My best guess: It's both.

1. Full Tilt is misappropriating funds

2. Sam wants his pound of flesh

[closeupready]

11. Pokerstars is Isle of Man; Full Tilt was based in Ireland, I thought.

As to denouncing the complaint, what else does anyone expect defendants to do? Prosecutors complain to authorities, defendants denounce to authorities those same complaints.