Home / Poker News September 2012 / The Poker Grapevine – “Lederer Files” Stir Mayhem
The Poker Grapevine – “Lederer Files” Stir Mayhem
Posted by: James Carter. - Sun, 2012-09-23 14:14
Howard Lederer, who slowly but surely is singled out as the biggest scapegoat of the Full Tilt Poker scandal (quite possibly deservedly), has spoken up in set of interview segments dubbed ‘the Lederer Files’, published by
online poker news-portals and discussed and dissected through various
poker forums. In the said interview, Lederer covered several issues, and needless to say, he caused quite a bit of an upheaval with some of his answers. Specifically, he used the opportunity to drag Phil Ivey and Erick Lindgren through the mud a little, and this is what caused the most discussions online. Poker players know that in June 2011, shortly after Black Friday, Phil Ivey sued Full Tilt Poker, and he eventually decided to boycott the 2011 WSOP too in protest.
Lederer called Ivey’s lawsuit “horrific” in the above said interview. He also said the reasons behind the suit were clearly “avaricious” ones. Jumping to Ivey’s defense on one of the popular message boards was Barry Greenstein, who said that Ivey was never concerned about the money when he filed the suit. Instead, he was looking to secure some sort of leverage to get out of the FTP fold. Greenstein also revealed that Ivey had given FTP an ultimatum to sell the company, and he was also involved in a potential takeover deal which was eventually refused by the FTP executives.
Lederer accused Lindgren of having picked up a $2 million loan from FTP, money which he never bothered paying back. According to PokerStars pro Daniel Negreanu, it was unfair of Lederer to single out Lindgren, given how so many other Full Tilt pros had resorted to similar loans, and how none of them ever paid it back. John Juanda was also mentioned in the “Lederer Files”, needless to say, not in a favorable light either. Juanda stood up for himself, claiming that some of Lederer’s assertions were simply wrong while addressing the issue of his own FTP loan too.
