The past few months have seen former Full Tilt Poker board members Rafe Furst and Howard Lederer work out settlements with the US Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York. Both guys forked over millions of dollars in assets, but were able to avoid jail time by doing so. Fellow board member Chris Ferguson is in the process of trying to do the same thing.
He’s been in meetings with the US Attorney’s Office for the past few weeks to hammer out a deal. As we reported in an article about Lederer, a $42 million civil suit was brought against Ferguson. And the US Attorney’s Office of SDNY meetings are all about deciding how much of this amount he should pay.
Lederer was facing a similar $42.5 million suit, which he settled by paying fines and forfeiting property. By the end of the deal, Lederer had given up around $2.5 million in total assets. Ferguson will no doubt be hoping for the same kind of “leniency” when his case is finally decided on February 19th, 2013.
The case was actually supposed to be decided much sooner than this. However, US Attorney Preet Bharara asked the case’s judge for another few weeks after Ferguson filed for a motion to dismiss the civil suit. Obviously he won’t get this motion granted, but the court appears to be willing to work with him on the deal.
Chris Ferguson was once a feared poker player who was known more for his poker ability than Full Tilt ownership. His biggest tournament victory came in the 2000 WSOP Main Event, where he scooped a $1.5 million prize. Overall, he’s earned five WSOP gold bracelets along with $8,281,927 in tournament winnings. However, most of this money came prior to 2011, when he largely stopped playing live poker.
Famed poker pro Daniel Negreanu has never been one to back down from controversy. He was the most vocal pro when it came to bashing those who ran Full Tilt Poker intothe ground, and the Canadian has frequently ripped Annie Duke and her brother Howard Lederer. However, he recently found someone outside of the poker world to get into it with.
Negreanu’s new beef was with a Philadelphia high school basketball coach named Nicholas Cusato. While we’ve yet to uncover what exactly started their fight, we do know that it involved some pretty heavy twitter exchanges. Here’s an excerpt from one of their conversations:
‘Daniel NegreanuVerified @RealKidPoker’
Sarah looks waaaay better as a blond. Yeah that’s right, I went from #Survivor to #TheChallenge and I’m not ashamed to admit it!
@RealKidPoker when are you gonna come out of the closet?
@NickyCusato interesting question. I guess if I did you’d show me the ropes? Or “the rope” Hahahahaha!
@RealKidPoker na I’d probably just knock your teeth down your throat with a left hook
@NickyCusato goosefraba bro. You need some anger management classes.
KidPoker doesn’t normally get into twitter fights like these with anybody outside of the poker world. But it’s not surprising that Negreanu decided to send a zinger back when the basketball coach questioned his sexuality. Other casual observers and poker forum users have also made comments about Negreanu being gay too – possibly because he’s pretty ‘metro’ and isn’t married at the age of 38.
But when looking at the fact that the Canadian frequently travels around the world and makes millions of dollars annually through poker, it’s not surprising that he’s still single.
Howard Lederer is currently in the process of doing a big interview with PokerNews that centers on his involvement in Full Tilt Poker’s demise. The seven-hour interview is called “The Lederer Files,” and it’s supposed to give Howard an opportunity to explain his actions. But with The Lederer Files over halfway finished, all we’ve gotten so far are the ramblings and accusations of a sociopath.
Rather than accept responsibility for his actions, Howard chose to deflect blame on others such as Ray Bitar. He said that Bitar was severely underqualified to serve as Full Tilt’s CEO and too incompetent as well.
Lederer also took aim at Phil Ivey by saying his lawsuit ruined any chance to sell FTP. Howard’s exact quote was, “He wasn’t speaking out for anybody except himself. He had a moral obligation to the poker community to do everything he could to, at the very least, not damage the company he had greatly profited from – the lawsuit was absurd.”
The onslaught of blame didn’t end here though because Lederer also brought all of the poker pros who took loans from FTP into the matter. He specifically identified Ivey, John Juanda and Erick Lindgren by saying that these players were unwilling to pay millions in loans back to Full Tilt. He said, “We got a lot of resistance. As of the end of May 2011, the only member who paid back what he owed the company was me. I owed the company $700,000 and I paid it in late May.”
What a surprise that Lederer would take this opportunity to say that only he repaid the loan. Of course, it’s a lot easier to do so when you’ve taken well over $40 million from the site – much of which came from player deposits. This being said, it’s no wonder why the US government wants around $40 million back from Howard through a civil suit.
Howard Lederer is no doubt one of the most hated men in the poker world – and for good reason. Along with several other former Full Tilt Poker bosses, Lederer pillaged millions of dollars from player accounts and was a huge reason why FTP couldn’t pay back its members post-Black Friday. So if you couldn’t stand “The Professor” now, you’re really going to hate him after hearing where the money went.
According to an amended civil suit brought by the US Department of Justice, Lederer spent much of the $44 million he allegedly had access to on exotic cars and multi-million dollar properties. So those who’ve been waiting on their $10,000 bankroll can take comfort in knowing that their money went to a good cause.
Getting further into the details on Lederer’s purchases, he bought the following cars over the past few years: 2008 Maserati GranTurismo, 2008 Audi Q7, 2009 Audi A8, 2012 Audi A8-L and a 1965 Shelby Cobra. Being the bargain hunter that he is, Lederer traded in the Maserati when buying the 2012 Audi and made several expensive repairs to the Shelby Cobra.
As for his properties, the once-reputable poker pro paid $3 million to the Merlin Contracting & Development company to build his primary residence. Lederer gave another $7 million to various companies for additional work and upgrades to the Las Vegas mansion. As if this isn’t enough, he also owned six other pieces of pricey real estate.
Taking all of the ill-gotten assets into account, it’s no wonder why the US Department of Justice is seeking $42.5 million in retribution in their civil suit. Based on this high amount, it seems likely that Lederer would be cleaned out if he loses the civil suit. Other Full Tilt figures who might be paying up include Chris Ferguson ($42 million), Ray Bitar ($41m) and Rafael Furst ($12m).
Mike Matusow says a lot of things, which means that not everything coming out of his mouth is in anywhere, shape or form newsworthy. However, he did recently make a good point about how WPT and WSOP tournament buy-ins should be lowered so more live players can make a living. ”The Mouth” discussed this in a recent interview by saying the following:
I’m not a big fan of traveling the circuit. Unless they bring the buy ins down to around $3,000 now, everybody is going to go broke. I think all the WPTs and all the WSOPC events should be like $3,000 and they should cut the rake in half. People are hurting. If you’re going to play a $10,000 tournament once a month, it’s impossible to survive. That’s why you don’t see me.
It costs like $700k a year to play all the big tournaments. That’s about one second place finish. Do you have any idea how hard it is to win second place every year? You’re playing the best players in the world.
Matusow went on to say that he doesn’t think the poker world can sustain itself without the big sponsorship deals coming from sites like PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker. He specifically pointed out that the WSOP has to “start giving back” because times are rougher right now.
The Mouth also talked about the Full Tilt Poker situation a little, and he basically backed Howard Lederer and Chris Ferguson up by saying, ”
I still believe Howard is not a criminal. Chris is not a criminal. I know they would never steal from anybody. They made mistakes. When they had no money they needed to sell right away. They had offers but they wanted to be greedy about it and keep control. They lost the offers. They put themselves in this position.
As evidenced by his nickname, Matusow has always been known as a loudmouth. However, with 18 years of experience in the poker world, he does have some good insight into the current state of the game. And it’d certainly be nice if the WSOP took his advice about cutting tournament rake in half!
Daniel Negreanu came out with yet another interesting interview as he discussed several subjects including Full Tilt Poker (again), Annie Duke, Erick Lindgren being broke, and a rumor that Layne Flack owes him money. First on the itinerary was how Negreanu thinks that it’s wrong how so many scumbags in the poker industry can keep screwing up, yet get high-profile jobs.
He cited Annie Duke as an example by saying that she represented UB Poker, and when they went down in scandal, she got a commissioner job with the Epic Poker League. This is sure to keep up the long-running feud that he’s had with Duke over the years.
Moving along, KidPoker also dropped the bombshell that he highly doubts former Full Tilt Poker players will be paid. Furthermore, he says that players need to forget about their money because Bernard Tapie is not going to complete the much-discussed FTP deal. Instead, he thinks that Tapie is just trying to make excuses for why the deal can’t be completed, such as Full Tilt pros owing the site money.
Another hot topic that was brought up was the subject of Erick Lindgren being broke. Negreanu stayed away from bashing Lindgren too hard, and chose to focus on how players who can’t pay back debts aren’t necessarily bad people – especially if they borrow with the intent to pay back the cash. During this discussion, the interviewer brought up a rumor about Layne Flack owing Daniel Negreanu money, which KidPoker chose to ignore.
One final point worth mentioning here is that Negreanu doesn’t think publicly outing those who owe money is productive. Instead, he believes that this makes it harder for the debtor to get the necessary money needed to pay others back. You can listen to the whole interview here.
To those who follow Daniel Negreanu, it’s pretty clear that he hates two things in life: 1) the Lederer family, and 2) Full Tilt Poker. And lately, Negreanu has been ranting on both of these subjects in-depth through some recent video blogs that he has released.
Now the whole point of the video blogs isn’t to bash Full Tilt Poker because Negreanu also discussed his trip to Sao Paolo, Brazil for the recent LAPT event. However, the videos have gained the most attention for what Negreanu has to say about FTP and the former owners.
In the first blog, which was entitled “VBlog with some Real Talk,” much of the blog was centered on how Jason Somerville came out and said that he was gay. The Canadian was a big supporter of Somerville coming out, and said that he was proud of the New Yorker for admitting he was gay.
Moving on to Full Tilt Poker subject, KidPoker backed up earlier comments he had made about how somebody should take a baseball bat to Howard Lederer’s testicles. Negreanu continued his rant on the former FTP owner by saying that he and the other owners were “scumbags” for not speaking at all about the situation. He finished by saying that Lederer hides out like a “shameful little weasel,” and Full Tilt knew they had no money, yet still took player deposits.
The following week’s video blog contained some more rants on Howard Lederer as well as Chris Ferguson. Negreanu also talked about how Doyle Brunson made a mistake in defending these two in a recent blog post. He went as far as to relate Brunson’s post to the time when Barry Greenstein defended Russ Hamilton after the UB mess.
In any case, it’s nice to have a high-profile pro like Daniel Negreanu ranting against guys like Lederer and Ferguson because of how badly their company mismanaged player funds. Now that we’ve covered all of this, you can see the video blogs below.
Proving that anything is possible, Full Tilt Poker reportedly has a very good chance to get a US online poker license if the game is ever legalized and regulated in America.
Full Tilt’s lawyer Jeff Ifrah came out with this news after his dealings with Groupe Bernard Tapie and the US Department of Justice. He said that, in addition to the $80 million deal between GBT and the US DOJ, there is also a very good chance for Full Tilt Poker to be accepted for a US online poker license if America does pass favorable legislation within the next year or so.
Right now, Groupe Bernard Tapie and Full Tilt Poker are in the process of finalizing the aforementioned $80 million deal. As part of the deal, GBT will pay back the $300 million-plus that non-US online poker players are owed from Full Tilt, while the US DOJ will pay the estimated $160 million that Americans have wrapped up in the site.
For the time being, there’s no word on what will become of the current Full Tilt board members such as Chris Ferguson, Ray Bitar and Howard Lederer. This trio, along with other higher-ups at FTP, are blamed for players not being able to cash out money after the US DOJ came down on Full Tilt; they took too money from the player deposits for themselves, and didn’t leave nearly enough to cover cashouts.
This being said, it’s interesting that Full Tilt Poker would still be considered for licensing within the US. After all, many online poker players were inconvenienced by this dilemma because some of them had thousands or even millions stuck on FTP. Hopefully though, the Groupe Bernard Tapie deal can bring an end to this whole mess.
Those of you who thought that Full Tilt Poker had even the slimmest chance of surviving the loss of their gaming license and the US DoJ actions may want to rethink your position. Major news outlets throughout the world have been reporting that Full Tilt Poker is being labeled a Ponzi scheme by the New York US Attorney’s Office.
Having any involvement at all with a Ponzi scheme definitely doesn’t bode well for the poker site when looking back through history. The best case of a Ponzi scheme architect having the book thrown at him is Bernie Madoff, who is serving 150 years in prison for his role in what is believed to be the largest Ponzi scheme ever.
As for Full Tilt Poker, the implications of their case may not deal with the tens of billions that Madoff’s situation did, but it’s still bad nonetheless. After all, top personnel at Full Tilt like Howard Lederer and Chris Ferguson are said to have taken a combined $440 million from Full Tilt Poker accounts. And this money wasn’t profits either, but rather cash coming directly from players’ accounts.
Now Full Tilt has already made the argument that they’re not a Ponzi scheme because this would imply that they lied to investors (players) about amazing returns that they’d be receiving; in reality, Full Tilt Poker only advertises and markets their site to encourage people to sign up and deposit. But on the other hand, you can’t exactly say that Full Tilt is free and clear of the Ponzi scheme label since they never disclosed to players that their deposits weren’t entirely backed.
All in all, this is merely shaping up to be a civil suit brought on by the US Attorney’s Office to recover lost players’ funds. However, it’s very likely that in the future, we could be seeing some major legal action against the top people at Full Tilt Poker.
Prop bets have always been big in poker, with professional players making all sorts of ridiculous personal bets. Vegetarians have gone carnivore, players have golfed for a whopping $18,000 per hole, moved to Israel, gotten tattoos and more. The most recent prop bet in the world of professional poker is between players Phil Ivey and Howard Lederer.
Lederer has bet $5 million against Ivey winning WSOP bracelets in the 2010 and 2011 tournaments. Ivey has won a total of seven bracelets since the 2000 World Series of Poker, two of which he won last year. He also managed to make it to the Main Event final table in last year’s tournament. However, will he win two bracelets this year and the next? Apparently he’s willing to bet $5 million that he will!
On a crazier note, player Ted Forrest has a $2 million prop bet going with Mike Matusow. Matusow has bet Forrest that he can’t get his weight down to 139 pounds by July 15. He currently weights 188. If he manages to take of the 49 pounds, Forrest will get $2 million. If he doesn’t, he’ll pay Matusow $150,000. On a previous prop bet, Forrest ran a full marathon in Las Vegas summer heat for $7000 and went immediately to the hospital for severe foot injuries when he finished. Hopefully this new prop bet won’t land him in the hospital again! Matusow has also agreed to run through the Vegas Strip totally naked if three women take home bracelets in the WSOP.
The past few months have seen former Full Tilt Poker board members Rafe Furst and Howard Lederer work out settlements with the US Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York. Both guys forked over millions of dollars in assets, but were able to avoid jail time by doing so. Fellow board member Chris Ferguson is in the process of trying to do the same thing.
