Some of this article is good news (I think it's a good sign that some process is ongoing where player money is being unfrozen). Some of it is bad news (the extent of the problems/confusion regarding payment processing on and just before black friday sounds worse than I thought). I think on net this is good news, though.
First Full Tilt account unfrozen
Tom Victor and Stephen Carter
27/05/2011
(http://www.egrmagazine.com/news/1667072/exclusive-first-full-tilt-account-unfrozen.thtml?utm_source=daily-snapshot&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=daily-snapshot)
The United States Department of Justice has unfrozen one Irish account belonging to Full Tilt Poker (FTP) and its co-founder Raymond Bitar, freeing up more than a third of the US$100m to $150m still owed to US players, eGaming Review has learned. A FTP source, however, told this publication US players would not immediately be paid despite this development and that no date had been confirmed for when this might happen.
The freeing-up of the Bank of Ireland account – one of nine FTP accounts frozen in Ireland and a total of 76 named in the 15 April Black Friday indictments as belonging to one of the three indicted poker sites – constitutes more than a third of the approximate $100m to $150m owed to American players by Full Tilt, according to information obtained by eGaming Review.
This publication has learned that in the last three weeks representatives of Bitar in Ireland have been seeking up to $150m from potential investors outside of the financial services sector in order to return funds to US players. The company has asked these investors for money in return for a stake in the company. These attempts are ongoing but have so far been unsuccessful.
eGaming Review understands the company is also engaged in discussions with the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York with regards to the unfreezing of further accounts across Europe.
A Full Tilt source also commented on the DoJ’s statement in a press release accompanying payment processor intermediary Bradley Franzen’s guilty plea this week on charges relating to the Black Friday indictments that Franzen had admitted being approached early in 2011 to help Full Tilt deal with a $60m shortfall, created, according to the DoJ, “by its inability to find a payment processor to process transactions involving US 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.”
The Full Tilt source explained this resulted from players’ poker balances being credited with money held in bank accounts seized by authorities before Full Tilt itself had been made aware of the seizures. “Because of the broad-sweeping nature of the Black Friday seizures, you had a seizure combined with a backlog and this has resulted in millions which all of a sudden became owed,” the FTP source said.
“Normally Full Tilt would cover that and take that loss, but because all their banks got shut down there was no way of doing that until recently when the government agreed to unfreeze the [Bank of Ireland] account,” he said.
He also explained that Full Tilt’s inability to unfreeze funds is not limited to those accounts seized in the 15 April indictments. “Banks that weren’t even subject to restraining orders started shutting down because they thought ‘we’ve got to be careful, the Americans are after us.’ We actually had to ask the prosecutors to call these banks and tell them they weren’t interested in them,” he said.
He added the repayment of US players was a complex issue, one which he hoped would be resolved sooner rather than later. “There are a lot of factors involved. Some of that is the $60m backlog referenced in the Franzen case, some is the bank accounts that voluntarily decided to restrain funds, and some is the status of negotiations with the Southern District.
“All of those issues together contribute to creating an impediment to paying players back, an impediment which wouldn’t be there if each of those things didn’t exist,” he said.
First Full Tilt account unfrozen
Tom Victor and Stephen Carter
27/05/2011
(http://www.egrmagazine.com/news/1667072/exclusive-first-full-tilt-account-unfrozen.thtml?utm_source=daily-snapshot&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=daily-snapshot)
The United States Department of Justice has unfrozen one Irish account belonging to Full Tilt Poker (FTP) and its co-founder Raymond Bitar, freeing up more than a third of the US$100m to $150m still owed to US players, eGaming Review has learned. A FTP source, however, told this publication US players would not immediately be paid despite this development and that no date had been confirmed for when this might happen.
The freeing-up of the Bank of Ireland account – one of nine FTP accounts frozen in Ireland and a total of 76 named in the 15 April Black Friday indictments as belonging to one of the three indicted poker sites – constitutes more than a third of the approximate $100m to $150m owed to American players by Full Tilt, according to information obtained by eGaming Review.
This publication has learned that in the last three weeks representatives of Bitar in Ireland have been seeking up to $150m from potential investors outside of the financial services sector in order to return funds to US players. The company has asked these investors for money in return for a stake in the company. These attempts are ongoing but have so far been unsuccessful.
eGaming Review understands the company is also engaged in discussions with the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York with regards to the unfreezing of further accounts across Europe.
A Full Tilt source also commented on the DoJ’s statement in a press release accompanying payment processor intermediary Bradley Franzen’s guilty plea this week on charges relating to the Black Friday indictments that Franzen had admitted being approached early in 2011 to help Full Tilt deal with a $60m shortfall, created, according to the DoJ, “by its inability to find a payment processor to process transactions involving US 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.”
The Full Tilt source explained this resulted from players’ poker balances being credited with money held in bank accounts seized by authorities before Full Tilt itself had been made aware of the seizures. “Because of the broad-sweeping nature of the Black Friday seizures, you had a seizure combined with a backlog and this has resulted in millions which all of a sudden became owed,” the FTP source said.
“Normally Full Tilt would cover that and take that loss, but because all their banks got shut down there was no way of doing that until recently when the government agreed to unfreeze the [Bank of Ireland] account,” he said.
He also explained that Full Tilt’s inability to unfreeze funds is not limited to those accounts seized in the 15 April indictments. “Banks that weren’t even subject to restraining orders started shutting down because they thought ‘we’ve got to be careful, the Americans are after us.’ We actually had to ask the prosecutors to call these banks and tell them they weren’t interested in them,” he said.
He added the repayment of US players was a complex issue, one which he hoped would be resolved sooner rather than later. “There are a lot of factors involved. Some of that is the $60m backlog referenced in the Franzen case, some is the bank accounts that voluntarily decided to restrain funds, and some is the status of negotiations with the Southern District.
“All of those issues together contribute to creating an impediment to paying players back, an impediment which wouldn’t be there if each of those things didn’t exist,” he said.
