Home / Poker News August 2012 / Howard Lederer Looking to Capitalize on DiCristina Ruling
Howard Lederer Looking to Capitalize on DiCristina Ruling
Posted by: James Carter. - Fri, 2012-08-31 05:25
About a week ago, Federal Judge Jack B. Weinstein has delivered a historic ruling in the case of the United States vs Lawrence DiCristina, the essence of which was basically that poker couldn’t be considered a game of chance and it was therefore exempted from under the provisions of the Illegal Gambling Business Act. DiCristina was exonerated from charges which included running an illegal poker business in a Staten Island warehouse.
The ruling was hailed by the poker and
online poker community as an important milestone in the recognition of poker as a game of skill rather than one based on luck. It apparently also represented a straw to grasp at for some of the Full Tilt Poker defendants. The lawyers representing Howard Lederer, who is accused of money laundering and fraud, have requested a meeting with the federal court in light of the new developments in the DiCristina case.
According to Lederer’s side, the court needs to clarify its position on the DiCristina case, because if it happens to agree with the Weinstein ruling then many of the charges brought against him should be dropped.
Chris Ferguson and Rafe Furst, Full Tilt board members also in similar legal trouble, have requested to be included in the status conference as well.
The only problem is that the court may not grant the defendants a conference at all. According to the Government, the status conference is not necessary or justified at this time. The Government has also put it forth that it “respectfully disagreed” with many of the conclusions on which the DiCristina ruling was based.
All three above said defendants had filed motions to have charges dismissed before, this time however – according to their attorneys – the DiCristina ruling cannot be ignored.
Even if some of the charges do get dropped – which isn’t highly likely – the three 3 defendants will still be in hot water on a number of other issues.
