Full Tilt Poker ponzi

[scandal 951]

I know some of the people at Pokerstars in the Isle of Man ..... this story will not end well....

Sept. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Full Tilt Poker paid board members more than $440 million using funds it had told its online poker players would be available to them for withdrawal at any time, U.S. prosecutors said.

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara's office yesterday asked U.S. District Judge Leonard B. Sand for permission to add the new allegations to a civil forfeiture case first filed against Full Tilt, PokerStars, Absolute Poker and other businesses in April.

“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 public alike about the safety and security of the money deposited with the company,” Bharara said in statement.

The forfeiture action parallels criminal charges also brought by Bharara against the poker companies and 11 people, alleging bank fraud, money laundering and illegal gambling. Prosecutors said that after the U.S. enacted a law in 2006 barring banks from processing payments to offshore gambling websites, Full Tilt, PokerStars and Absolute Poker worked around the ban to continue operating in the U.S.

Ireland-based Full Tilt, Absolute Poker of Costa Rica and PokerStars, based on the Isle of Man, were the leading online poker sites doing business with U.S. customers.

Bharara's office said in yesterday's filing that Full Tilt management's payment processing had so degraded by last year that it was crediting website players with money never collected from their accounts.

L. Barrett Boss, an attorney for Full Tilt, didn't immediately reply to telephone and e-mail messages seeking comment on prosecutors' filing.

The civil forfeiture case is U.S. v. PokerStars, 11-cv-2564, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan). The criminal case is U.S. v. Tzvetkoff, 10-cr-336, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).