Full Tilt Fate May Lie With AGCC Decision

The saga surrounding Full Tilt Poker continued on this week without many new developments.  To review, Howard Lederer, Rafe Furst, and Chris Ferguson were added to the modified civil suit complaint by the US Department of Justice on September 20th.  In that complaint, the company allegedly used player deposits to fund the business and pay owner distributions.  In all, Full Tilt owes $390 Million to players worldwide.

The AGCC may be the last chance Full Tilt has of survival.

This past Friday, Full Tilt Poker release another statement to PokerStrategy.com.  In it they stated the following:

“Full Tilt Poker is not a Ponzi Scheme explanation

On September 19, 2011, the Department of Justice issued a release stating that Full Tilt Poker was “A Global Ponzi Scheme.”  While the government has taken issue with the underlying activities of FTP, under any reasonable interpretation, there is no way to characterize the operation of Full Tilt Poker’s virtual online card room as a global Ponzi scheme.

A “Ponzi” scheme is an investment fraud that involves the payment of purported returns to existing investors from funds contributed by new investors. Ponzi schemes do not involve any legitimate investment, but rather use the new investor funds to pay “dividends” to the initial investors.

Despite recent events, FTP remains committed to identifying a suitable investor and paying back its players in full.”

This statement drew much ridicule from the general public and many in the poker media as Full Tilt failed to address any of the relevant issues but only put out that they were “not a Ponzi scheme.”

Also, the rumor mill has been buzzing about after Jeff Ifrah announced that an investor has signed a letter of intent to purchase the company.  Details on this investor are somewhat scarce, but it is supposed to be a French investor and some reports have linked Laurent Tapie with the group that is rumored to buy the company.

In the meantime, the Alderney Gambling Control Commission have not reached a decision regarding the licensing status of Full Tilt Poker.  Ifrah claims that any deal with the investors depends on the AGCC choosing to not permanently revoke FTP’s license.  The trial resumed on the 19th and was supposed to take up to 72 hours to complete.  Now, over a week later, a decision has still not been rendered.

Players with balances on Full Tilt remain hopeful that a deal comes through, but it all seems to hang on the AGCC’s decision.  We will bring you more as it develops.

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