Ponzi scheme anyone?

800OVER

U.S. attorney charges poker sites for operating Ponzi scheme - Sep. 20, 2011

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Federal prosecutors on Tuesday accused the operators of the online site Full Tilt Poker of operating like a Ponzi scheme, siphoning more than $440 million in gambler winnings to board members and owners....

Hobbes

lol posted at the same time in the other thread

Milo

And yet, Amway still goes on . . .

Hobbes

Milo;281406 wroteAnd yet, Amway still goes on . . .

But Amway is Multi-Level Marketing. ;)

MANITOBA420

Funny that annie duke was involved in both ub and ftp at the same time these shady operations were taking place. Also funny her brother is one ot the apparent ring leaders. I wonder how much money went to them alone. After these last few months I have no desire to play poker online anymore, there is little to no trust in the sites now, and a huge amount of doubt on many other levels. FTP your the downfall of online poker

Little King

[ ] Ponzi Scheme

Milo

Little King;281488 wrote[ ] Ponzi Scheme

Did you read the DoJ summations? Or maybe listen to the Fan590 today? They had Chris Tessaro (sp?), a pretty decent poker writer, especially at explaining things to the layman, on to discuss the FTP developments. I'll paraphrase a few of the more notable tidbits.

FTP was a profitable business until the owners started looting the till

Lederer, despite Bitar having the title, was running the day to day operations

FTP owes US players approx. $130M, globally $400M, but only had approx. $60M available on Black Friday

Ivey is most likely assisting the DoJ, based on the data in the summations (they mention help from a player/owner who borrowed $$$ in amounts eerily close to those mentioned when Ivey was threatening and withdrawing his lawsuit).

Very interesting and depressing interview. Will probably be a podcast soon for those that missed it.

Oh, and the actions of those named in the indictment are definitely those of people running a ponzi scheme.

Milo

Link . . .
http://pmd.fan590.com/audio_on_demand/Interview_Chris-Tessaro-PTS-20110921.mp3

Little King

Milo;281493 wroteDid you read the DoJ summations? Or maybe listen to the Fan590 today? They had Chris Tescherer (sp?), a pretty decent poker writer, especially at explaining things to the layman, on to discuss the FTP developments. I'll paraphrase a few of the more notable tidbits.

FTP was a profitable business until the owners started looting the till

Lederer, despite Bitar having the title, was running the day to day operations

FTP owes US players approx. $130M, globally $400M, but only had approx. $60M available on Black Friday

Ivey is most likely assisting the DoJ, based on the data in the summations (they mention help from a player/owner who borrowed $$$ in amounts eerily close to those mentioned when Ivey was threatening and withdrawing his lawsuit).

Very interesting and depressing interview. Will probably be a podcast soon for those that missed it.

Oh, and the actions of those named in the indictment are definitely those of people running a ponzi scheme.

Don't really know much about it all tbh, read Dwans statement regarding the Ponzi Scheme accusations, thats about it.

To me it just seemed like FTP was being run by people who had no idea how to run a business. Anyways hope they get there sh*t together cause I got some loot on there and a ton of value in the Rushes.

Milo

Based on this new information, NO ONE with $$$ on FTP will see anything beyond pennies on the dollar, if that. You are correct in the value of the patented assets.

Little King

Milo;281497 wroteBased on this new information, NO ONE with $$$ on FTP will see anything beyond pennies on the dollar, if that. You are correct in the value of the patented assets.

Hope Stars can get ahold of the patent for Rush. Though seems doubtful for anytime in the near future.

philliivey

Little King;281500 wroteHope Stars can get ahold of the patent for Rush. Though seems doubtful for anytime in the near future.

Stars is working on a rush version.

There is suppose to be a site who already has like rush poker going on with players pooled, lol everybody is getting in on it now. I think the site is Terminal poker, I just read the email like 5 minutes ago and have not checked it out to see if it is true or not.

jontm

Milo;281493 wroteDid you read the DoJ summations? Or maybe listen to the Fan590 today? They had Chris Tessaro (sp?), a pretty decent poker writer, especially at explaining things to the layman, on to discuss the FTP developments. I'll paraphrase a few of the more notable tidbits.

FTP was a profitable business until the owners started looting the till

Lederer, despite Bitar having the title, was running the day to day operations

FTP owes US players approx. $130M, globally $400M, but only had approx. $60M available on Black Friday

Ivey is most likely assisting the DoJ, based on the data in the summations (they mention help from a player/owner who borrowed $$$ in amounts eerily close to those mentioned when Ivey was threatening and withdrawing his lawsuit).

Very interesting and depressing interview. Will probably be a podcast soon for those that missed it.

Oh, and the actions of those named in the indictment are definitely those of people running a ponzi scheme.

Chris definitely knows the inner workings of the industry, he has had made twitter remarks against the grain on other subjects that prove to me he has his finger on the pulse and then some.

very good podcast, thanks for the link.

MANITOBA420

The AGCC has still not stated the actual reasoning behind the suspension of full tilt poker. I believe it was wrong to do this behind closed doors, as FTP is definatley hiding something. Most crictics reasoning behind the suspension was due to black friday, and FTP's banking issues. To this day we still have no definative answer their.

http://www.gamblingcontrol.org/userfiles/frontpage/FTP_statement.pdf

[LEFT][/LEFT]
The Commissioners of AGCC forming the tribunal dealing with the regulatory hearing into the affairs of FTP have decided that the hearing will continue on Monday 19th September 2011 but that it be held ‘in camera’. This determination was reached following a pre-hearing application by FTP to further adjourn the hearing.
André Wilsenach, Executive Director, stated:
"I am pleased that the FTP hearing will continue as scheduled, as was argued on my behalf. However, I am disappointed with the tribunal’s decision that, notwithstanding my arguments to the contrary, the hearing will be held in private. I believe the public has a right to know the reasoning behind the decisions to suspend FTP’s licences and call a hearing, and to hear the evidence that will be put forward on my behalf. It is my understanding that the tribunal conducted a difficult balancing exercise of the interests of the various parties, taking into account the legal arguments for and against further postponing the hearing, and for and against allowing the public to attend the proceedings."
As a consequence of the tribunal’s decision members of the public will not be able to attend the hearing. A further statement will be made at the earliest possible opportunity.
Issued by: Andre Wilsenach (Executive Director, AGCC)

Even the AGCC knows this was a shady outfit, the publc had a right to know why, and full tilt is hiding it all, you losers are 10 times worse than UB.