Home / Poker News September 2011 / Full Tilt Poker – a Global Ponzi Scheme?
Full Tilt Poker – a Global Ponzi Scheme?
Posted by: Randy Williams - Wed, 2011-09-21 06:36
The depths of the troubles that plague Full Tilt Poker seem to increase by the day. It was only about half a day ago that we published a piece about the Hendon Mob, one of the most important online poker affiliates, breaking ties with the operation, and we already have something much more explosive to report.
Full Tilt’s lawyers may have been busy trying to dig the site out of the legal and financial hole in which it found itself following the Black Friday DoJ moves, but US prosecutors have been busy too trying to put the final nail into the
Full Tilt Poker coffin, and this time around, it looks like they may have succeeded.
New allegations have been made on Tuesday in the case, targeting none other than the “Poker Professor” himself, Howard Lederer and ex-Full Tilt Pro/owner/high profile poker player Chris “Jesus” Ferguson.
The pair is accused of embezzling $440 million of company funds, funds which apparently belonged to depositing players.
A new motion has been filed in a New York federal court, which accuses Full Tilt poker of having run a Ponzi scheme which collapsed once the DoJ decided to step in.
US Attorney Preet Bharara, the same prosecutor who initiated the Black Friday indictments, released a statement regarding the new motion, in which he detailed how Full Tilt executives abused company funds.
According to the statement, Full Tilt failed to maintain enough funds to pay players and in addition to that, it paid its board members from money deposited by players. According to the US Attorney, Full Tilt Poker was never a legitimate online poker room, but rather a Ponzi scheme which victimized players all over the world.
The motion is a hard blow to the company which is currently struggling to find investors that would bail it out, as the previous civil complaint had apparently not included allegations regarding the defrauding of players.
