Home / Poker News November 2012 / Black Friday Fallout – Rafe Furst off the Hook
Black Friday Fallout – Rafe Furst off the Hook
Posted by: James Carter. - Fri, 2012-11-30 13:50
Last September, former Full Tilt Poker board member Rafe Furst suddenly found himself in hot water with the US DoJ. A civil forfeiture and money laundering suit was filed against him, and the poker pro and
online poker room executive took the issue pretty hard indeed. He posted a lengthy blog entry thanking those supporting him and trying to clear his name as much as possible. Not much was heard from Furst since, but now it looks like his woes may be over. According to a document filed with the US DoJ, Southern District of NY, Furst has pretty much agreed to forfeit all the proceeds he had received from Full Tilt Poker. Furst had apparently set up a trust fund in which he received all his Full Tilt distributions. In order to get off the legal hook, he has apparently given up all the funds in the said account, and agreed to pay a $150k fine. According to the DoJ, all the money recovered from Furst, including the contents of his trust fund and the $150k fine, will be made available to Full Tilt’s stiffed US players as part of the $184 million refund package.
The financial deal was only part of Furst’s settlement: he has apparently also agreed not to attempt to derive any sort of financial benefits from the operation of an online poker/gambling business in the US, for as long as a relevant law makes that sort of activity legal and the entity with which he gets associated obtains the necessary licensing and authorization from the government.
By all accounts, Rafe probably got off easy, as the DoJ had apparently looked to recover more than $11.7 million in forfeitures from him. It is unknown exactly how much money his above mentioned trust fund held.
