Update: FTP in the News Again

Forfeiture deal progresses between FTP owners and DoJ, players' RICO prosecution rejected According to the latest media reports, Full Tilt Poker's owners and the US Department of Justice are getting near an agreement on unspecified forfeiture arrangements. This could supposedly lead to US players being paid at least some of the money. However, even if the DoJ dismisses its civil forfeiture proceedings against FTP, thereby remove liability for the company's shareholders and helps its acquisition by Groupe Bernard Tapie move forward, the Department's individual proceedings against FTP-connected persons named in the Black Friday indictments will remain. The persons named in the indictments, including Howard Lederer, Chris Ferguson and Ray Bitar, have until March 19, 2012 to respond to the amended civil complaint filed by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Apparently, most of the info once again came from an American lawyer involved in the issue, Jeff Ifrah. Another report that came on the company this week involves a RICO class action filed by poker players led by Steve Segal, Nick Hammer, Robin Hougdahl, and Todd Terry which called for the return of players' funds and for subsequent damages. Namely, it has been announced that on Jan. 30, U.S. District Judge Leonard B. Sand dismissed the $150 million civil claim against Raymond Bitar, Full Tilt Poker, Pocket Kings Ltd, Howard Lederer, Phil Ivey, Chris Ferguson, John Juanda, Jennifer Harman-Traniello, Phil Gordon, Erick Lindgren, Erik Seidel, Andy Bloch, Mike Matusow, Gus Hansen, Allen Cunningham and Patrik Antonius. According to Judge Sand, “It remains unclear whether the direct cause of the plaintiffs' injuries was the decision by the U.S. Attorney's office to temporarily shut down the Full Tilt poker website and seize the company's assets or was instead as plaintiffs' conversion allegations suggest, the subsequent decision by one or more of the defendants to halt player withdrawals.” In addition, he decided that the players' conversion claim should move forward against three of the five Full Tilt units seeking dismissal, opining that the players could amend their claims against the other two entities. He stated: “The mere fact that Full Tilt Poker customers maintained player accounts on the website that they subsequently could not access is therefore insufficient to establish a conversion claim against these defendants. Nor have Plaintiffs alleged any additional facts, demonstrating that either company exercised control over the player accounts, or played any role in the decision to prevent Full Tilt Poker customers from withdrawing the money in their accounts.” And even though the claim can proceed with respect to Pocket Kings, Vantage Ltd. and Filco, the judge assessed that it could not continue with the individuals named in the original complaint: “Plaintiffs have pled sufficient facts to establish a plausible inference that defendants Pocket Kings, Vantage and Filco 'played some role' in the conversion. The fact that the three defendants worked together to maintain the Full Tilt website makes it plausible to infer that they also worked together to block Plaintiffs' access to the money in their accounts. We therefore deny Defendants' motion to dismiss the conversion claims against defendants Pocket Kings, Vantage and Filco but grant it with respect to Tiltware and Pocket Kings Consulting,” he concluded.