The millions of people who signed up for a Web site called Full Tilt Poker knew they were there to gamble. But it turns out they were taking on far more risk than they realized, even when they had no chips on the virtual table.That is the essence of a civil complaint that federal prosecutors filed on Tuesday. It asserts that players around the world entrusted Full Tilt with $390 million in gambling money, and that the company promised to keep those funds in secure accounts. In reality, prosecutors found, the money wasn’t there; instead, much of it had been transferred to the owners and management of Full Tilt, some of whom were themselves among the most prominent and popular poker players in the world.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/21/business/poker-site-misused-players-money-us-says.htmlAlso see:U.S. calls online poker site a “global Ponzi scheme”
U.S. prosecutors made new allegations on Tuesday in a probe of the Full Tilt Poker website, accusing self-styled “Poker Professor” Howard Lederer and professional poker champion Christopher Ferguson and others of paying themselves more than $440 million while defrauding other players.In a motion filed in federal court in New York to amend an earlier civil complaint, the prosecutors accused Full Tilt Poker of running a Ponzi scheme that continued even after the original charges were filed.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/20/us-poker-fraud-idUSTRE78J5II20110920
http://in.reuters.com/article/2011/09/20/idINIndia-59453520110920
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/09/20/oukin-uk-poker-fraud-idUKTRE78J5IF20110920U.S. Alleges Poker Site Stacked Deck
As professional poker players, Howard Lederer, Chris Ferguson and Rafael Furst got rich by bluffing players out of their money in televised tournaments. Now, the U.S. government alleges that they and their colleagues used this same approach in running one of the world’s largest online poker sites.On Tuesday, the U.S. Justice Department in a civil suit accused Messrs. Lederer, Ferguson and Furst, and another director of the company behind the Full Tilt Poker website, of defrauding thousands of online poker players out of more than $300 million that is still owed to them. The government said that, in total, the 23 owners of the site had taken out $444 million in distributions over the years.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904106704576582741398633386.htmlFull Tilt Poker’s Lederer, Ferguson accused of $US300m global Ponzi fraud
The US Justice Department overnight accused poker celebrities Howard Lederer and Christopher Ferguson, among other executives of a major poker website, of defrauding poker players out of more than $US300 million ($292.6m).The US Attorney in the Southern District of New York filed a motion to amend an earlier civil complaint to allege that Mr Ferguson, Mr Lederer and two other directors for the website, Full Tilt Poker, operated what the Justice Department says was a Ponzi scheme that allowed the company to pay out $US444m to themselves and other owners, which included other famous poker players.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/full-tilt-pokers-lederer-ferguson-accused-of-us300m-poker-fraud/story-e6frg8zx-1226142540690
Full Tilt Poker Web Site Cheated Users, U.S. Suit Says
The millions of people who signed up for a Web site called Full Tilt Poker knew they were there to gamble. But it turns out they were taking on far more risk than they realized, even when they had no chips on the virtual table.