Home / Poker News December 2012 / The Worst Poker Moments of 2012 – Lederer’s DoJ Settlement
The Worst Poker Moments of 2012 – Lederer’s DoJ Settlement
Posted by: Mark Baldwing - Mon, 2012-12-31 05:48
2011 had certainly been a bad year for
online poker and although the woes of the industry in large part carried over to 2012, this year was much better in light of the fact that the Full Tilt Poker ordeal has finally come to an end and players residing outside the US finally got their monies back. Despite the fact that things have apparently settled in players’ favor, one shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that US based players still have not been compensated. The poker community still wanted to see heads roll and the three people the community would’ve loved to see tarred and feathered – Ray Bitar, Howard Lederer and Chris Ferguson – were obviously at the top of the list.
Lederer was quite possibly the one who drew the most ire as he dared show up and play in high stakes circles, and even entered a public tournament at one point.
This December, the
poker community was quite disappointed to learn that Lederer had struck a settlement deal with the DOJ’s Southern District of New York. Exactly how easily he got off isn’t known, but given the fact that he threw a 150-person party to celebrate the settlement, one is safe to assume he got off easy indeed.
Lederer had apparently taken some $42 million out of the company, and although he was forced to forfeit a whole list of assets including real estate, cars and the contents of a handful of bank accounts, it obviously seemed like he himself was rather pleased with the arrangement. He only paid a $1.25 million fine on the civil money laundering charges and he was never forced to admit any sort of wrongdoing. The bottom line: this settlement may yet indeed go down in history as one of poker’s lowest points in 2012.
