(OP Hijacked by NoahSD)

Cliffs:

April 15th Black Friday - The Department of Justice shuts down US operations of FTP, Pokerstars and UB.

April 26th - Pokerstars allows US players to cash out but Full Tilt Poker does not allow US players access to their funds. As reported by Pokeraddict.net.

May 31st - The WSOP starts and a few team FTP pros showed like Allen Cunningham, John Juanda and Erick Lindgren but notably absent were Phil Ivey, Chris Ferguson and Howard Lederer.

June 1st - Phil Ivey sues Full Tilt poker in an effort to get out of his non-compete clause. It was reported by Wicked Chops that Ivey was particularly upset because he had brought in an investor that would have got FTP out of their financial mess but the deal was nixed by Bitar and Lederer.

June 26th - It's reported Phil Ivey is in Dublin meeting with FTP executives.

June 29th - Alderney Gambling Control Commission suspends FTP's gaming license and in effect shuts FTP down.

June 30th - Phil Ivey voluntarily dismisses his lawsuit against FTP.

July 1st - Todd terry files a class action lawsuit against FTP. (this date is approximate. Sorry for not being sure of exact date)

July 22nd - Poker News Daily reported that Phil Gordon was dismissed with prejudice from Todd Terry's class action lawsuit against FTP. Phil Gordon's attorney claimed he didn't take part in the day to day operations of FTP.

July 26th - As reported by Pokernews there was a hearing between FTP and the AGCC to determine whether FTP's gaming license should continue to be suspended. It was supposed to be a public hearing but in private lawyers for FTP asked for an application to adjourn the meeting until a later date which was granted. The new hearing date was set to be September 15th.

July 29th - Subjectpoker.com releases a statement talking about some of the financial dealings between David Benyamine, Phil Ivey and FTP.

July 29th - Mike Matusow does an interview with Quad Jacks and talks a bit about the FTP situation.

August 1st - As reported by Subject Poker the Kahnawake gaming commission agreed to renew FTP's secondary client provider authorization.

August 18th - As reported by Stayonpoker.com a second class action lawsuit against FTP has been filed by two Canadian players.

August 22nd - FTP's silence is finally broken when attorney Jeff Ifrah speaks out and gives some minor details about the FTP situation. Certain 2+2ers have spoken with him on the phone and been corresponding back and forth through emails with the attorney. Ifrah reported he was finally able to speak about the situation because an exclusivity agreement between a potential investor and FTP expired.

August 30th - FTP releases another statement, including details about $115M they claim has been seized over the past two years, that there are indeed investors who are actively examining FTP for purchase, and that any deal will result in new management at FTP.

August 31st - FTP lawyer Jeff Ifrah and his firm files a motion with the court asking to be relieved as attorneys for the defense due to an "unreasonable financial burden" on the firm.

September 14 - FTP releases another statement which includes references to upcoming personnel cuts and that negotiations with investor(s) is ongoing.

September 15th - Scheduled hearing date between FTP and the Alderney Gambling Control Commission to determine whether FTP's gaming license will be renewed and allowing them to again service non-US based customers. On Sept. 5th, the hearing was announced for September 19th (a four day delay) due to logistical issues.

September 19th-20th - Scheduled hearing began behind closed doors ("in camera") and was adjourned until the next day. Hearing resumed on the 20th. On the 20th, multiple news agencies broke the story that the DOJ had amended their civil complaint to include charges against Howard Lederer, Chris Ferguson, and Rafe Furst in relation to running a "global Ponzi scheme". While FTP was originally told the hearing with AGCC would reconvene on the 22nd, on the 21st it was released that the hearing was concluded; FTP must now wait for the AGCC's decision.

September 21st - Mr. Ifrah and poker news sites revealed that there is a potential investor for FTP currently interested. The results of the AGCC hearing are not yet released.

September 29th - The AGCC releases their decision - three of the four licenses for the corporations that make up FTP are revoked. Both FTP and the DOJ release statements after the decision is made public (thanks to vamoose).

September 30th - Poker Strategy report that Full Tilt Poker and Groupe Bernard Tapie Sign Acquisition Agreement. 'This agreement, which includes the repayment of Full Tilt Poker’s world-wide players in full, is subject to several conditions; the first of which is a favorable resolution with the United States Department of Justice. Discussions with the United States Department of Justice will begin immediately.'

September 30th - iGaming France Interview with Laurent Tapie - 'Laurent Tapie says he believes in the Full Tilt project and has the funds to repay players, but admits there is “still a long way to go”

October 4th - Subject Poker addresses some of the confusion surrounding the recent Acquisition Agreement, clarifying that GBT does indeed intend to buy a large majority of FTP and not 5-10% as reported by other news sites.

October 7th - Subject Poker reports that GBT Seeks to Preserve Assets by appointing a Cheif Restructuring Officer who will in effect replace the current Board of Directors at FTP.

November 1st - Subject:Poker and other sites report that the US DOJ and the Groupe Bernard Tapie (GBT) reached an agreement that will allow the sale of FTP to GBT. Full details are not released in this initial report, but an email from Bitar to Tiltware shareholders revealed that GBT will assume responsibility for non-US player accounts, while the DOJ will assume responsibility for US players.

November 17th - A signed deal between the DOJ and GBT is announced. The terms of the deal state that FTP will surrender all assets to the US DOJ, who in turn will sell those assets to GBT for $80M USD. US players will need to petition the DOJ for reimbursement of their prior FTP accounts, while non-US players will be handled by GBT. Exact details on when and how payments to both sets of players are not yet available, nor has a date for the re-opening of FTP yet been disclosed. The deal must be approved by 2/3 majority of Tiltware shareholders in order to be approved. The deal also includes the DOJ receiving access to a European bank account worth approximately $40M, so the actual amount of capital GBT will need to transfer to the DOJ in order to purchase FTP assets will be approximately another $40M (source: WSJ article).

December 15th - Subject:Poker reports that FTP and GBT have signed an agreement to further the transfer of FTP’s assets to GBT. This paves the way for FTP to forfeit their assets to the DOJ so that GBT can purchase them for $80 million.

December 15th - Groupe Bernard Tapie Applies for Spanish Gaming License. With a deadline for applying looming, more then 30 companies have put forward their application of a Spanish license.

I took no part in writing these cliffs. Thanks to EYESCREW, AnAnonymousCoward, Prospace, and Hash1982 for providing cliffs. Please PM NoahSD if you think that something should be added or changed.

Some other big threads:

• Full Tilt chatter containment thread
• Alderney suspends FTP license - **ALL PLAY AND CASHIER HALTED**
• Los Angeles Times: Full Tilt Poker to be sold to European investors
• alderney update
• FTP in "exclusive bargaining agreement" with investors, there is no conditional deal yet.
• AGCC/FTP Hearing Thread (Hearing now delayed until September)
• Q+A with Jeff Ifrah, a lawyer associated with FTP
• FTP Statement 8/31 - $150M+ Seized/Stolen, 6 Potential Investors
• FTP Statement 9/14
• DOJ amends civil complaint to include Lederer, Ferguson, and Furst
• 2p2 Thread on French Investors
• Q&A: Durr answers questions about FTP
• FTP and GBT reach agreement

The Rules

This is where discussion about FTP should primarily take place. If you start another thread about a minor event or your views or whatever, it will be locked. (That's because a lot of people read NVG to read about high stakes action and tournament results and to see silly photoshops and stuff, and we need to respect that.)

If something significant happens, feel free to start a new thread.

Cliffs since December 11, 2011:



*thanks to poster duh for this succinct cliff note of the situation since December.

Yesterday,poster TafferBoy made the following post, which is actually a decent summery of everything to date, as well as being amusing:

Update 4/24/2012: Initial reports that the GBT deal has failed, coupled with a rumor that PokerStars is now in negotiations with the DOJ to purchase FTP, are released.

GBT statement:

PokerStars blog response: http://www.pokerstarsblog.com/corpor...en-093438.html

No official statement from PokerStars has yet occurred, but neither have they denied the rumors. Current speculation states that PokerStars will purchase FTP and repay all player funds within 90 days. Payment of US players coming either from PS or through the DOJ appears to be unresolved.

Noah for pres

Quite before the storm?

How many take-overs have you 'lived through' on a senior level and managed? I am curious? This isnt a situation where the CEO is going to be replaced. At the least, you are likely going to lose the CEO, CFO, COO, CMO (he left) and maybe the CTO (that would be determined later) as well as their support staff - then based on the employee comments you may have to remove some of the senior managers as well. On top of that, any deal with the DOJ will involve a cooperation clause - you can bet on that - this means you will be keeping and turning over records - you may even have them coming in an interviewing employees from time to time - its very disruptive and creates a climate of fear in the office. We wouldn't expect anyone to understand that unless they have experienced it.

We were involved with one of these not too long ago where all the top management was removed. And it created real issues. The employees hid important facts from the new management and they realized too late that that they had lost a key individual who was more valuable then they realized before. The business was the 3th largest (and prior was growing rapidly) in its industry and the last time I checked it looks like they are not going to make it now...

I mean no disrespect to you, but how old are you? Besides playing poker what real life business experience do you have to make such trite comments? And regardless, tell me why you think replacing the management is an easy task in this case? This isn't a large well run public company you are taking about here, this was a family run business despite the large number of employees with some serious management issues already imbedded in its structure. Have you ever sent an email to FTP for a customer service issue? Have you heard about the selling of rake back accounts? Have you listened to peoples comments about managing employees living in Vegas? There will be a lot to fix for any new team and it will create a lot of disruptions.

My apologies. Nevertheless, with all due respect to your experience and your profession, which I will assume you are highly qualified at, running a global IT business with 700 employees and serious management issues is very different from managing a hotel business. This is a major turn around situation (if it even gets a chance to be one).


New thread...yeah!

sigh, reading FTP stuff just depresses me. Ive budgeted my life on the $$ being gone and if i ever get it, it will just be a MASSIVE bonus

Logic would dictate that if a failing business were taken over new management would be brought in and if a thriving business were taken over/bought out there would be a better chance of keeping the present management team intact.

Genher is under the impression, forgive me if I'm wrong, that Full Tilt was this thriving business prior to Black Friday. In light of all the information released since April 15th it's pretty clear that FT was not thriving at all.

we should all be doing this. if you haven't you are disillusion!
its a sad reality

I am pretty sure we will be hearing from ftp on friday (today for some). so lets all pray extra for this ****

F&B manager in hotels for 20 years....quite a few

thank God for this brand new thread with cliffs. Hopefully cliffs in OP will keep being updated the more info we get. Thanks Noah

new hearings should take place before Sept 15th and we should get an announcement 2 weeks before that. amirite?

Super cliffs. I'll never play on FTP again but they've got such a huge piece of the poker economy locked up. On pokerstars at the moment, would be nice if the fisherprices of ftp could get their money and move it to stars. then again I spose they're used to depositing from scratch so they probably already have.. good regs stay at ftp

of course, this is just my mad fantasy... to actually see ftp back and getting a chunk to boost my roll back up to mids would be nice

When you say "ftp", are you talking about a possible response from Jeff Ifrah? Or are you being psychic/know something we don't?

I mean ftp

I wish they went up for a few days with the kanawake license so all the regs could withdraw! Would be sooo nice

takeovers usually do involve major management cleanup. i was just part of one where there is only 1 VP remaining (training) and everyone else was terminated within 1.5 years.

however, i think the takeover chat is premature. the longer FTP remains out of operation, the more their operating cash flow is depleted and it won't be long before employees start leaving. it's been 4 months since bf and been non-operational for about a month. soon these employees should be leaving if the job market in the area is viable. if FTP remains out of operation for 2-3 months the majority of FTP's best technical resources should be gone by then

who is FTP's lead technical and software architect(s)? he'd be the primary asset i would want and he'd come cheaper than purchasing the company

ftpinformant, are you out there ???

I wouldn't say FTP wasn't a thriving business. They made millions and managed their money terribly. A good comparison would be a really good poker player with bad bankroll/life management. FTP was making a ****load of money and only have themselves to blame. If they weren't a thriving business, people wouldn't be looking to put 350 mill into their company, which would 100% happen if it wasn't for the DOJ.

why leave money on the table for the DOJ? they knew their days were numbered and kept paying out dividends to keep cash flow low...it was intentional and...failure by design. it was an illegal business and they flaunted it on TV to the ire of politicians and prosecutors.

don't say it was mismanagement, they were riding the gravy train as hard and as fast as they could while their time was limited. remember, the DOJ was sending cease and desist notices for quite some time and started rolling in the indictments and arrests

edit: and it was the ONLY poker site I know primarily owned by United States citizens. take that fwiw and you can see the big picture, especially when they weren't a major player until Party/Empire/Ongame exited the U.S. Yep, FTP was a late comer with great software, low traffic and full of rocks with the lowest rb % of any site save pstars.

I know I have posted this more than once, but iirc, there should be 7 days notice before a hearing, not 14, and that notice is due from the AGCC to FTP, not to the public. There is nothing that requires the AGCC to give any specific advance notice to anyone but FTP, however, I think they obviously will post an update on their site under the circumstances.

At last word, the hearing was postponed to be no later than Sept 15.

their days were numbered? if they managed the company and money correctly, they'd be in the same boat as Stars, most likely the 2nd biggest site in the world. With the right decisions, they'd be doing fine, the people calling the shots just abused it and ruined it's chances to thrive.

Lol at Full Tilt not communicating what has happened/is happening to their players!!

So fn tiilting!

You would think they would send at least a cookie cutter "everything is fine, we are working out some licensing/financing issues" (ie LIE) to their loyal customers explaining why their site isn't up and working, but no, nada, just complete and utter silence!!

It's amazing how contemptuous they are being toward their customers!!

Not even making an effort to explain or even lie to them about why they can't get their money or get to their site, not everyone reads 2+2 so there mustve been a lot of in the dark fishies.


Going to their website is a laugh, only way someone would know whats happening would be to click on the Alderney Gaming Authority logo and it links to their statement.

This company sucks balls and I wish I never contributed any money to their thievery fund!!!

Rant over/

Exactly. I think the fantastic software fooled many of us. It appeared like the company was in good hands. By the time the site went down, its software was by far the best in the market. I'd hire those software guys in a second if I was in a position to do that.

Too bad I didn't know that there's one company for software and another for customer service and money handling. It's now obvious that the latter was a complete scam. Only an idiot would hire that leadership. For example, the CS has been a constant subject on the forums for years - never any improvement in it.

FTP was the Traci Lords of poker. A lot of FUN while it lasted.

They made a statement...cliffs are at start of this thread

Man, Noah, we need to get those answers from Ifrah/FTP fast because this discussion is denigrating to the lowest level

Not anybody's fault, but the baseless speculation has returned. No day it's positive, then next negative. I would say the truth lies in between hdmet/Ledason and Gehner.

the comment that one day its positive, the next day its negative is very tilting to me. what have we seen positive come out of the full tilt situation? rumors and people talking about potential investors? i truly hope that everyone who has money on full tilt gets it (myself included), but the fact that none of us in the US have seen a penny since black friday and full tilt acting like they don't give a s*it about their players is simply ridiculous. obviously they don't care about how they treat their players, but if they would at least take 5 minutes a week they could tell us what the situation is with OUR money that they mismanaged (to put it nicely). i can't believe guys like lederer and the rest of the people who own shares of the company would allow their fellow poker players to be treated so poorly when they obviously can do something about it!