Three largest online poker sites indicted and shut down by FBI.

[Ponce]

The only reason was that the government was not getting their "fair" share of money.
================================================== ====


Three largest online poker sites indicted and shut down by FBI.

(198) (9482)(1007)April 15, 2011 | 12:32 pm
The founders of the three largest online poker sites were indicted on Friday in what could serve as a death blow to a thriving industry.

Eleven executives at PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, Absolute Poker and a number of their affiliates were charged with bank fraud and money laundering in an indictment unsealed in a Manhattan court. Two of the defendants were arrested on Friday morning in Utah and Nevada. Federal agents are searching for the others.

Prosecutors are seeking to immediately shut down the sites and to eventually send the executives to jail and to recover $3 billion from the companies. By Friday afternoon Full Tilt Poker’s site displayed a message explaining that “this domain name has been seized by the F.B.I. pursuant to an Arrest Warrant.”

The online gambling industry has taken off over the last decade, drawing an estimated 15 million Americans to bet online.

In 2006 Congress passed a law curtailing online gambling. Most of the leading sites found ways to work around the law, but prosecutors allege that in doing so they broke the law.

“These defendants concocted an elaborate criminal fraud scheme, alternately tricking some U.S. banks and effectively bribing others to assure the continued flow of billions in illegal gambling profits,” Preet Bharara, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, said in a statement.

Poker fans took to Twitter in droves, worried about the money in their online gaming accounts, fretting that online poker's days were at an end.

"Well the good news is I think I only had about $300 left on the online poker sites overall," tweeted Jimi Schindler of Madison, Wis. "Maybe I'll see that money?!!?"

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/money_co/2011/04/three-largest-online-poker-sites-indicted-and-shut-down-by-fbi.html

[Buddha]

No poker online but I can trade stocks?

[madfranks]

Dear gov't, thanks for keeping us safe from, from... um what exactly is the danger here?

[Cobalt]

We allow major corporations to hide money offshore and not only pay ZERO taxes but the Gov gives them a refund but manage to chase down the gambling sites :oo-->

If they want to bust someone for money laundering then bust Bank of America which moves more money then any other business from the Illegal aliens working under the table here in the states to their homeland of Mexico via wire transfers

[keehah]

Eleven executives at PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, Absolute Poker and a number of their affiliates were charged with bank fraud and money laundering

No non-poltical reason why all the online banking sites using Federal Reserve Note fiat money would not also be on such a list of supposed illegalities.

http://dollardaze.org/blog/posts/2006/November/12/1/usdollarcomparison.jpg

[Libertytree]

One of these mornings people are gonna wake up hearing an announcement that their money has been devalued/readjusted for 20 cents on the dollar. The government will tell them it's for their own good and for national security, I'm sure they'll understand as I'm sure they understand that the people who had their criminal money confiscated via these poker sites understand.

The only criminals here are TPTB stealing with impunity.

[keehah]

One of these mornings people are gonna wake up hearing an announcement that their money has been devalued/readjusted for 20 cents on the dollar. The government will tell them it's for their own good ..

Some organizations game both crimes....


The Lotto 6/49 is the most popular national Canadian Lottery, established in 1982. The game was originally played for $1 per ticket, but after 22 years in existence, the Interprovincial Lottery Corporation felt it necessary to increase the price. A survey was conducted, interviewing 4,500 Canadians who desired larger jackpot prices, agreeing an increase to $2 per ticket was acceptable.
http://www.worldcasinodirectory.com/canada-casinos/lottery

[dys]

I like to play poker and this sucks.

dys

[TheNocturnalEgyptian]

My friend plays poker online and his account, like thousands of others, was confiscated. I tried to get him mad about censorship, which was a no-go. I tried to get him mad about the theft of whatever money was in his account, no-go. He plays 5 nights a week and I couldn't say anything to make him mad about this!


www.pokerstars.com - Federal takedown notice

http://www.pokerstars.com/banner7.jpg

[dys]

My friend plays poker online and his account, like thousands of others, was confiscated. I tried to get him mad about censorship, which was a no-go. I tried to get him mad about the theft of whatever money was in his account, no-go. He plays 5 nights a week and I couldn't say anything to make him mad about this!


www.pokerstars.com - Federal takedown notice

http://www.pokerstars.com/banner7.jpg



Your friend is in the minority. Most serious poker players are furious. From another site:


Congrates DOJ! Biggest theft of online capital in the history of the world by creating toxic loans, lying, cheating, and defrauding banks and countries= 0 people indicted.

People running online poker sites= 11 people indicted.

Proud day to be an American


http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/57/poker-legislation/full-tilt-ub-pokerstars-domains-seized-fbi-principals-indicted-merged-updated-1020623/index14.html

dys

[Olmstein]

To me, the bigger story here is the way the sites have been shut down. There have been no convictions, but the pokersites assets (domain names and bank accounts) have been seized, using asset forfeiture laws, that were originally designed to go after drug dealers. The constitution is supposed to protect against asset seizures without a conviction, but that shit went out the window with the war on drugs.

This is why I consider the "war on drugs" to actually be a war on the bill of rights.

[dys]

As a poker player, I've been following this story for years. The interesting thing from my perspective has been watching people in the poker circles wake up. There are a lot of people out there that earn their incomes or supplement their incomes via playing poker. Once the government started to mess with their livelihoods, these people started to get it. A lot of hate for the USA Corp out there on the poker forums, I'm going to try and direct some of them over here.

dys

[AndreaGail]

you could kind of sense something was brewing when story after story surfaced of deposits / withdrawals not going through / rejected / etc the last few months

[dys]

you could kind of sense something was brewing when story after story surfaced of deposits / withdrawals not going through / rejected / etc the last few months


This has been happening on and off for years. I won't rehash the whole story, but this started years ago when the owners of Party Poker were arrested coming off an airplane. They eventually cut a deal with DOJ and stopped servicing US customers. After that it's been an up and down battle for poker players, culminating in this travesty.

dys

[gunDriller]

I like to play poker and this sucks.

dys


i'm not yet sure what exactly happened, but if the players who have positive accounts can't access their accounts - hasn't the government just sort of confiscated their money ?

[dys]

I like to play poker and this sucks.

dys


i'm not yet sure what exactly happened, but if the players who have positive accounts can't access their accounts - hasn't the government just sort of confiscated their money ?


That remains to be seen, but I kind of doubt it. The money is not located in one central location...it's spread out over multiple payment processors and other areas. Bottom line: most of the money probably hasn't been stolen my DOJ, but I'm sure some of it has.

dys

[7th trump]

As a poker player, I've been following this story for years. The interesting thing from my perspective has been watching people in the poker circles wake up. There are a lot of people out there that earn their incomes or supplement their incomes via playing poker. Once the government started to mess with their livelihoods, these people started to get it. A lot of hate for the USA Corp out there on the poker forums, I'm going to try and direct some of them over here.

dys

Your a poker playing gambler huh!

Whats our Father say about gambling there Dys?

[osoab]

As a poker player, I've been following this story for years. The interesting thing from my perspective has been watching people in the poker circles wake up. There are a lot of people out there that earn their incomes or supplement their incomes via playing poker. Once the government started to mess with their livelihoods, these people started to get it. A lot of hate for the USA Corp out there on the poker forums, I'm going to try and direct some of them over here.

dys

Your a poker playing gambler huh!

Whats our Father say about gambling there Dys?


Does your Father say anything about calling out others?

[7th trump]

As a poker player, I've been following this story for years. The interesting thing from my perspective has been watching people in the poker circles wake up. There are a lot of people out there that earn their incomes or supplement their incomes via playing poker. Once the government started to mess with their livelihoods, these people started to get it. A lot of hate for the USA Corp out there on the poker forums, I'm going to try and direct some of them over here.

dys

Your a poker playing gambler huh!

Whats our Father say about gambling there Dys?


Does your Father say anything about calling out others?

Yes He does!
Says to pluck the eye out if its no good.

[Buddha]

Yes, I'm sure that we are all perfect Christians here.

[7th trump]

Yes, I'm sure that we are all perfect Christians here.

I agree we arent, but as God says.........pluck the eye out if it sees evil.
I was just practicing discernment about a person who claims alot and passes judgement.
I'm not perfect and I strive to not sin. Gambling is one of those evils he seems to willingly enjoy.

[solid]

I agree we arent, but as God says.........pluck the eye out if it sees evil.


So I can go around and pluck the eyes out of every pimp in my area..."in the name of God, I pluck your eye out!"

7th, what about this passage?

Luke 37: Judge not, and ye shall not be judged; condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned; forgive, and ye shall be forgiven.

[Olmstein]

Thread drift!

[Son-of-Liberty]

Lets stay on topic guys!

I am glad I didn't get screwed on this. Have a few online poker accounts but they are all cashed out at the moment. I used to play a fair bit and was slightly profitable but it just wasn't worth my time so I took all my profits. There are some people that make good money though and I am sure they are pissed. Not only that their money is frozen and potentially stolen but also for the lost income. Hopefully this wakes more people up.

What does ponce say again? Seems like the feds are grabbing anything they can get their hands on.

[Son of Dave]

To me, the bigger story here is the way the sites have been shut down. There have been no convictions, but the pokersites assets (domain names and bank accounts) have been seized, using asset forfeiture laws, that were originally designed to go after drug dealers. The constitution is supposed to protect against asset seizures without a conviction, but that shit went out the window with the war on drugs.

This is why I consider the "war on drugs" to actually be a war on the bill of rights.



Yeah, Imagine if the Feds used their awesome powers of law against Goldman Sachs for instance. The Pokerstars guys problem was that they were on the wrong side of the table.

[AndreaGail]

U.S. Attorney: FTP 'massive scheme'

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Comments766
By Andrew Feldman
ESPN.com


The online poker world in the United States was brought to a halt in April as PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker were charged with bank fraud, illegal gambling offenses and money laundering. On Tuesday, the Manhattan U.S. Attorney has motioned to amend the forfeiture and civil money laundering complaint to highlight that Full Tilt Poker and its board of directors operated the company as a "massive Ponzi scheme".

The amended complaint explains that while FTP maintained player funds were safe, the company never actually had the represented cash on hand as a result of crediting users' deposits without actually receiving the money. There was a shortfall of approximately $130 million as a result of that process.

The complaint further states that as of March 31, FTP owed players around the world $390 million, but only had $59 million on hand.

"As the proposed amended complaint describes in detail, Full Tilt was not a legitimate poker company, but a global Ponzi scheme," Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement. "As a result of our enforcement actions this alleged self-dealing scheme came to light. Not only did the firm orchestrate a massive fraud against the U.S. banking system, as previously alleged, Full Tilt also cheated and abused its own players to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars. As described, Full Tilt insiders lined their own pockets with funds picked from the pockets of their most loyal customers while blithely lying to both players and the public alike about the safety and security of the money deposited with the company."

Additionally, the complaint assesses that the company used player funds to pay board members and other owners more than $440 million.

In addition to Ray Bitar, who was named in the initial complaint, three high-profile players were also named as board members in the DOJ's press release: Howard Lederer, Chris Ferguson and Rafael "Rafe" Furst. According the U.S. Attorney's Office, they've "restrained five accounts associated with those individuals."

The complaint also maintains that the aforementioned board members are liable to the government "in an amount that is no less than $40,954,781.53 for Bitar; $41,856,010.92 million for Lederer; $25 million for Ferguson; and $11,706,323.96 million for Furst."

In total, the four board members and estimated 19 additional owners of Tiltware, LLC received $443 million in distributions since April 2007.

The Alderney Gambling Control Commission suspended Full Tilt Poker's license in June and a hearing was held Sept. 19 and 20 to discuss a possible reinstatement. Since that time, there has been no activity on the online poker site.

Full Tilt Poker was previously a sponsor of poker programming on ESPN.

http://espn.go.com/poker/story/_/id/6996703/howard-lederer-chris-ferguson-rafe-furst-named-manhattan-us-attorney-amended-black-friday-civil-complaint

[Joe King]

Dear gov't, thanks for keeping us safe from, from... um what exactly is the danger here?DuH! It's the danger of them not getting their cut. :p

[Dogman]

Dear gov't, thanks for keeping us safe from, from... um what exactly is the danger here?


DuH! It's the danger of them not getting their cut. :p

When it all boils down, that is exactly what it is. The Fed's see money , the Fed's want the money they (think) they are owed.

[Ponce]

When I was living in CA I used to play on line for PLAY MONEY and was ahead around $75,000 and got tired of it.......now I play the real thing about once every three months and my limit is $100.00......loose it and leave or win another $100.00 and leave........I am in the red for about $900.00.........hey, is fun.......playing for the last 10 years.

[vacuum]

The amended complaint explains that while FTP maintained player funds were safe, the company never actually had the represented cash on hand as a result of crediting users' deposits without actually receiving the money. There was a shortfall of approximately $130 million as a result of that process.

The complaint further states that as of March 31, FTP owed players around the world $390 million, but only had $59 million on hand.

"As the proposed amended complaint describes in detail, Full Tilt was not a legitimate poker company, but a global Ponzi scheme," Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement
Hmm.....looks like I'm not the only one confused:

http://gold-silver.us/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=1107&stc=1&d=1316560940

[dys]

For the record, that story on ESPN is pure hogwash. Full Tilt may have spent or hid the money, but they did not extend credit lines that they did not collect on...outside of a VERY SMALL amount that I would estimate at far less than 1% of their revenues. Maybe even less than 1/10 of 1%. I can't believe the irresponsible reporting by ESPN. Wow, just wow.

dys