From our friends at Subject:Poker, and agreement has been reached: http://www.subjectpoker.com/2011/12/ftp-gbt-agree/

ETA on when DOJ will stop screwing around? Any chance this is done before the holidays?

Good question! I love this forum when things are getting done!

I'd say there's always a chance - the DOJ/FTP agreement should be the easiest of the three, IMO.

But with the holidays approaching, I think that's impossible to say. All it takes is one key figure who is out of the office starting next week and the entire sequence gets pushed back to after Christmas at the earliest. I don't think there's anyway for sure we can know until next Friday - if no deal has occurred by then, then we know it didn't get done before the holidays.

I'd like elaboration on the underlined part.

1. Believed by who? The reporter (diamond-flush) or one of the sources? Is this speculation by someone who doesn't know, or a coy response by someone who does know but isn't supposed to say or can't be 100% certain?

2. 'Shortly'? days/weeks/months? Is 'shortly' just a placeholder guess because you don't know how long but think it will follow a timeline that you subjectively consider to be quick? Or do you have a specific (albeit rough) timeline for these events that you could objectively quantify as being 'short'?

I'm not sure the last time was when I was accused of being coy, but lets call it careful instead.
Look, I could tell you it might happen in 3 days, but then when it takes 2 weeks instead, I am accused of not being honest. If I say a month, and it happens in 3 days, I look like I just took a guess out of thin air. Its a no-win really.
I can tell you that there are four parties to consider here: GBT, FTP, the DOJ and the Judge in the case.
If it was up to GBT and/or FTP, I can tell you that both are totally committed to get this done as a priority. The DOJ, as much as we would like to think that we are the most important thing in their world, actually can be busy with other cases as well. Keep in mind, no matter how you celebrate, its the holiday season. That means vacation time etc, for key personnel, possibly even the Judge.
I can tell you that it could happen in a week or two. Factor in the holidays, could be a little longer. Remember there are additional steps to happen after this, but make no mistake, todays report is HUGE.
We have said all along that no one was being paid by Xmas, it just was not possible. That said, the updates we have presented should help everyone understand that GBT and FTP have been working round the clock, along with the DOJ, to move it along.

he wasn't accusing u, from what i understood, but rather the person who answer the (implied) question of 'when will this happen?'

What's the next step for Americans? Just wait until DOJ says apply for remission?

Why argue over what 'shortly' means after all of this time? This news should, and I only say 'should' for cautionary purposes, mean that the deal is done and that players will get paid eventually. I hope that someday we learn all of the inside details.

no one is arguing, just trying to glean as much information as possible.

When do we expect news on how the DOJ are going to handle the player funds issue? Has there been any formal release on this yet?

I assume you mean US player funds? No there has been no formal announcement made public as yet, and tbh, I would expect this would be the last thing we will hear after all other steps are completed. One step at a time.

I expect it will be handled much like SIPC claims. It is a process the DOJ would already be familiar with.

http://www.sipc.org/claim/claimsprocess.cfm

My guess is the DOJ process of repaying US players is going to take a long time. See: Neteller for a similar situation that wasn't quite as complex as this one.

The main issue is that the way that sentence is phrased leads to ambiguity as to whether DF was reporting vs editorializing.

"it is believed that..." is a phrase that in my opinion does not belong in a news article. It merely begs the question - who? Who believes that? ie was he paraphrasing one or more sources who expressed opinions/knowledge that it would be done shortly or was that just his own personal opinion based on all he learned while putting the story together.

The clarification is primarily required in order to assess the level of credibility of the person making the assessment, with only a secondary importance on what objective measure of time said person actually means when they use it.

The passive voice strikes again.

Karak summarized my thoughts on this subject more eloquently than I ever could, and I agree with him/her completely.

My guesswork on the big picture steps of the process:

1. Legal odds and ends of the transaction and asset sale need to be completed. There's probably a few stumbling blocks in here that could derail the process, but I don't know much about this. Odds are this is fine.
2. DOJ hires forensic accountants to dig through FTP records and figure out who is owed what in the US. See: Neteller where this also happened.
3. DOJ has to acquire the necessary funds to reimburse US players. Is there a shortfall? If there is, where will the difference come from? Two very good questions I do not know the answer to. Noah?
4. They set up a procedure to process payments and reimburse players.
5. ??????????
6. Profit (or not)

Whether or not there's a shortfall depends on how you do the math.

I mean.. $159M (the total amount seized from FTP lifetime) + $80M (the amount GBP is supposed to pay) + $unknown (the amount seized from FTP's board, including Bitar... I know that this is more than $10M and less than $100M, but that's about it) is obv a lot more than $150M (the amount owed to US players.

However,

1) Most of that $159M was seized by other districts in different cases for different reasons (nominally at least). The amount seized on BF is only like $40Mish.

2) $159M is the amount that FTP lost from the seizures. The amount that the DOJ earned from the seizures is likely much lower. (I've explained this a few times, and it takes a lot of typing, so I won't bother right now.)

3) It's not at all clear what SDNY will treat this repayment as legally, and I certainly have no ****ing clue where it's allowed to come from. Does it have to come from money that they seized from FTP's assets? Can it include money taken from individuals? Can it include money seized from other poker sites? Can it just come straight out of their budget? I have absolutely no idea.

So, they could have enough money and more or they could be way short. One can assume based on the fact that they've gone so far with this agreement under the pretense that they'll be the ones paying US players that they've thought about this. But, all I can do is speculate. The DOJ plays things extremely close to the vest, and they've not seen fit to share their calculus or legal reasoning with anyone.

I know I answered the original question as above, but just let me say that it was not my "opinion" or it would have clearly said so. I may offer my opinions on the forum, not really in the articles you see. In this particular case, there are multiple parties involved in the steps taking place. There are also multiple sources for most of the articles we publish.
I can't be any clearer at this time other to say that, while you may not approve of the words I use(d), I can tell you that there are specific reasons for choosing them.
Fwiw, I have no problem with anyone ever asking for clarifications.

An interesting look, but I do agree that the DoJ has certainly considered this and by agreeing to this deal likely already has a plan in place. I can't imagine that plan incorporates anything less than a full reimbursement to US players, but who knows these days? Is it possible GBT is kicking in any $$ to help cure any shortfall?

The DoJ has been seizing funds for quite some time now, so it's possible they've strung a group of seized FTP assets together which can cover the shortfall.

They may also be expecting that not all funds will be claimed.

For example, they may require proof of ownership of the account. This would be identification that you are a US resident/citizen (remember, the ROW is GBT's problem). If a player multi-accounted and put false information to prevent FTP from knowing that, that player may not be able to recover the funds in their other accounts, having no proof they are the person in question.

They could require providing a SSN or withhold 28% of the proceeds, just like poker rooms do with tournament winnings. With the SSN, such distributions would be reported to the IRS, with the burden of proof on the recipient to prove their cost basis. For smaller accounts, the burden of filing taxes (or back taxes) may exceed the value of the account.

They may count on the basic laziness of poker players and assume by putting a limited time frame to make a claim, some people will fail to do so. While FTP is big news on 2+2, the average person who put $100 on the site and has $30 left may ignore the notice to file a claim or decide it is too much effort.

They may also go after all of the accounts that never had funds withdraw. They'll have the resources to draw that money.

Finally, they may make the distributions in tranches. They start out with paying up to a fixed amount to everyone, then see how much money is left before the next tranche is issued to the larger accounts.

No prizes for figuring out who gets to pocket any unclaimed money.

I'm not even gonna speculate on what their plan is, but I can add one more item to your list:

+ players that have died after Apr 15th will have a really hard time making their claims.

Not everyone who played online poker was a college age person.

I was in the middle of resolving a multi-accounting situation when BF hit. I saved an email from FT that included this:

"There is currently an outstanding issue with your primary account that needs to be resolved. Please contact us from the email address registered to your primary account, *******, so we can discuss the details with you.

Also please contact us from the registered email address for your closed account, *******, to let us know if you would like the remaining funds in this closed account transferred to your primary account."

I don't mean to interrupt the discussion ITT, I just noticed your mention of this scenario.. I'm trying to get an idea of what chances I have of ever recovering the low 4 figure amount I have on the closed account. I am in USA, used my real name to create the closed account, and didn't have any motivation behind creating the new account other than just being tired of my old screen name.

Although I agree this time it is more complex. Relevant parts from the Neteller case are (taken from the more detailed thread on the Neteller situation in PL I posted sometime ago).

Jul 18, 2007 NETELLER Announces Deferred Prosecution Agreement(DPA) Settlement of US Situation.

July 30th 2007 Distribution plan implemented

So 5 months from announcement of a settlement to checks in player's bank accounts as posted on 2p2 at the time.

I'm also starting to form the opinion (that is probably wrong ) that there will be some sort of hybrid trustee setup as before i.e. players will potentially have to log in an request a withdraw via a new button which via FTP software generates a form that is dispatched to the DOJ appointed trustee. Remember the DOJ press release stated the domain name agreement was for the purposes of facilitating US player repayment

This approach both solves the problem of account verification (player account & balance to US identity), US players not knowing their exact account balance, and curtails claims by players with <cost transaction of which there are likely to be many.

I believe somewhere in whatever process actually they decide on there will need to be active approachment by players and one won't just have to do nothing and receives a check in the mail.