Pokerstars, Full Tilt, UB.com, Absolute Poker seized by FBI

[orren]

"Full Tilt issued a statement following the return of its dot.com domain which suggested it could not return player funds at this time."

I wonder why?  They must have plenty of money....or do they have a processor problem...or no processor?

blue

I understood it as them wanting to wait and see what type of fines and penalties they were going to be facing. Before they went and gave away the means to pay for the lawsuit.

Translation: US charges, US pays for.

[blueday]

Looks like you may get paid next week if you have any money on FT.

Based on the deal closed with the US Department of Justice about temporary unfreezing of the site in order to payout players’ money, Full Tilt Poker is expected to start the process soon… or as soon as they manage to organize it.

In terms of the players’ remaining account balances, they were so far advised that the DoJ agreement to pay players was a good first step, but that it wouldn't be able to process refunds until the government gives up control of its funds.

In addition, Full Tilt pointed out that “there remain significant practical and legal impediments to returning funds to players in the immediate future,” adding that, thanks to the recent enforcement measures, there are now no [legal US] channels through which refunds can be made.

I think it's a bit late for them to be worrying about how they can pay their players "legally".

blue

[lipstick_xoxos]

Poker Stars has made arrangements with an American bank and has begun the process of returning funds to US players.

"the ongoing process is legal under its recent agreement with the US Department of Justice and that the funds to cover these withdrawal requests ‘are readily available".

Lips

[wnanhee]

Absolute Poker Reaches Agreement with Department of Justice, Closes US Operations

After earlier reports Full Tilt Poker converted some tournament tickets to cash and deposited payments from the Take Two promotion into player’s accounts, Absolute Poker and UB Poker made their own announcement Tuesday they have reached an agreement with the US Attorney’s office in the Southern District of New York.
According to the agreement, the US Attorney’s office has agreed to provide assurances that third parties may work with Absolute Poker the return of US player’s funds, currently held by third-party processors.

The agreement also states that Absolute Poker has closed their US-facing operations and have stopped US players from playing for real money on the site.
The company has not requested their their absolutepoker, ub and ultimatebet domain names and the agreement states they will not be returned.
This comes after the May 9 announcement that their lineup of sponsored players, including Joe Sebok, had been dismissed.

The statement mentions the Company’s top priority is the return of all account balances to US players, but they still face several legal issues before funds can be paid.
Blank Rome LLP, the site’s attorneys in the US will work to resolve the issues.
However, the funds will not immediately become available for withdrawal as a result of today’s agreement.

A Company spokesman said: “Today’s signing of the agreement with the DOJ is an important step towards the safe and efficient return of funds to our US players.
We can now move as expeditiously as possible to collect player monies from third party processors as a prelude to establishing proper mechanisms for the return of funds to our US players.
As previously announced, we have already taken specific actions to exit the US market by closing our US-facing operations.
Blank Rome LLP will continue to engage in discussions with the SDNY in order to complete the necessary agreements for the final transfer of frozen fund balances to our US players. This remains our highest priority.
We will continue to update our players and the poker community, as we move forward to resolve outstanding issues.”

[blueday]

Update in relation to payouts from the big 4:

"So far, PokerStars players are reportedly receiving payouts, whereas Full Tilt Poker is still negotiating some points in the agreement, and until now, Absolute Poker players noticed no movements in this direction."

blue 

[blueday]

I'm seeing news that rakeback payments are being made by Full Tilt to the USA players along with converting various player rewards and tickets into cash.  These converted funds have been or are being paid into accounts. Still no movement on the withdrawal of funds for USA players yet though.

blue

[jos vink]

still can't make withdraws on moneybookers from fulltilt me dutch anyone knows when withdraws r possible again?

[blueday]

still can't make withdraws on moneybookers from fulltilt me dutch anyone knows when withdraws r possible again?

No idea Jos but as you can see from my prev. post, they are quite busy crediting US accounts with rakeback and tourney dollars/tourney tickets at the moment. 

If I hear anything, I'll post it in here.

blue

[blueday]

Phil Ivey has filed an online lawsuit against FT for non payment of player money.

Check out the details in the Poker/Gambling News.

blue

[medtrans]

Phil Ivey has filed an online lawsuit against FT for non payment of player money.

Check out the details in the Poker/Gambling News.

blue

Wow that impresses me!  Nice of him to do that.

medtrans

[orren]

Phil Ivey has filed an online lawsuit against FT for non payment of player money.

Check out the details in the Poker/Gambling News.

blue

Did you get to view Full Tilts side of the story??? Very interesting to see how much of either sides story turns out to be the truth.....

[medtrans]

Phil Ivey has filed an online lawsuit against FT for non payment of player money.

Check out the details in the Poker/Gambling News.

blue

Did you get to view Full Tilts side of the story??? Very interesting to see how much of either sides story turns out to be the truth.....

hmmmmmmm.

[blueday]

I guess it is inevitable really orren. 

blue

[Rosebud]

I read both sides and it will be interesting to see where it goes from here.Two completely different stories of course

[blueday]

I wasn't aware that US deposits were not being taken from US bank accounts at Full Tilt - did this happen to anybody?

"From around September 2010 to February 2011 Full Tilt Poker was accepting player deposits and crediting the amounts to their Full Tilt accounts, but not drawing the funds from the players' bank accounts, thus giving its players funds to use on its site for nothing.

This was first reported by players, but the practice was confirmed when one of the Black Friday indictees, Bradley Franzen, pleaded guilty, and the enforcement authorities issued a press release, stating that "....Franzen admitted that in early 2011 he had been asked to help Full Tilt Poker deal with a $60 million shortfall created by the company’s inability to find a payment processor to process transactions involving U.S. player accounts. The company was facing the shortfall because it continued to credit funds to player accounts despite being unable to actually debit (or”pull”) funds from customers."

Then, around March 2011, Full Tilt emailed thousands of players, advising them that due to processing delays their deposits had been credited to their FT accounts to allow them to play, but that these deposits were not actually recovered from their bank accounts, so that they were now going to do so, and that players should ensure that funds were available in their bank account. This caused various reactions, from belief that it was a scam to thinking that it was a mistake; but some even "...changed their bank account details, reversed the transactions, or emptied their bank accounts before Full Tilt was able to remove the funds. Others thought that they had been hacked when they saw the money removed from their bank accounts."

Therefore, a complete mayhem was created for Full Tilt in terms of administrative procedures, which required the involvement of other departments within the company to deal with the sheer volume of correspondence. In addition, the recovery of the funds was rather unsuccessful, with only 70 percent of recovery attempts being fruitful."

This is quite unbelievable that they would do that.

blue