Say it ain’t so Howard. The DOJ has said they are convinced that Full Tilt Poker was essentially operating as a “ponzi scheme” for the last few months. The DOJ has clearly stated Ray Bitar, Howard Lederer and Christopher “Jesus” Ferguson used player funds to pay themselves over $100 million!
Here’s the breakdown:
- Raymond Bitar paid $41 million
- Howard Lederer paid $42 million
- Chris Ferguson was allocated $87 million and paid at least $25 million
There was also another owner (an un-named poker pro) received $40 million. They were all paid after April 15, 2011 with funds that were placed in a Switzerland bank account. The US Department of Justice is stating these turds paid themselves with the poker player deposits. Meanwhile they owe over $390 million to the Full Tilt players.
What does this mean for the players? I think this is the nail in the coffin – write off your Full Tilt bankroll because there is no chance of getting that money back. The Full Tilt assets are under 5% of the dept that they owe. The idea of someone buying this company/brand now is zero. Why buy a company that have over $400 million debt? The brand is tarnished and the brand will never recover.
Durr (Tom Dwan) is trying to be transparent and is currently answering players Full Tilt Questions at 2p2, that will help give you an idea of what was going on.
Also do you think players should get to priority if there are Full Tilt Payouts?