US Attorney Accuses Full Tilt Poker of Stealing Millions from Players - 09-22-11

September 22 - Federal prosecutors in the United States amended a civil lawsuit against beleaguered online poker room, Full Tilt Poker (FTP), accusing the group of acting as a "Ponzi scheme" and of stealing over $400 million from its players to pay board members.

US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Preet Bharara, who was instrumental in bringing Wall Street fraudster Bernard Madoff to justice, said that Full Tilt Poker was "not a legitimate poker company, but a global Ponzi scheme."

He said that over the course of four years, FTP executives used players' funds for their own benefits.

"As a result of our enforcement actions, the alleged self-dealing scheme came to light," he said. "Not only did the firm orchestrate a massive fraud against the US banking system, as previously alleged, Full Tilt Poker also cheated and abused its own players to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars."

Amended charges against Full Tilt Poker will filed on Tuesday in New York.

Bharat continued in his claim that Full Tilt Poker 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."

Full Tilt Poker had its domain name seized by the FBI in April and has since been unable or unwilling to pay the millions owed to its players in funds which were left in their accounts, prompting reports that FTP stole money.

The executives of the site were charged with fraud, money laundering and gambling as a way to circumvent the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA).

FTP Executives Took Millions for Themselves

The amended lawsuit charges that Chief Executive Officer, Ray Bitar, and other FTP board members, including Howard Lederer and Chris Ferguson received tens of millions of dollars from the funds at the site.

On the other hand, the online poker room continues to claim that it had insufficient funds to pay out its players when they tried to withdraw their money.

Full Tilt Poker continues to claim that it is searching for an investor to buy out the company so that it can start paying its players back.

All in all, the prosecutor believes that Full Tilt Poker owes over $400 million to players - $150 million of that to players from the United States.  The online poker group reportedly has only $60 million left in the bank.