The PN Pod made it sound like he was willing to talk.
Aren't they owned by Pokerstars (the sponsor of the 2+2 Pokercast)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ypUz1WYens

Do the right thing photo shop geniuses.

Last month rolled 5 years since Black Friday, which is the statute of limitations on most Federal crimes that could theoretically be associated with his conduct.

Amazing so many people want to give him a pass.

He never offered to give back money that he KNEW for a fact wasn't his. If I wake up one morning and my bank account balance is a $1,000,000 higher than it's supposed to be I don't get to keep the money. Even if I notice the error before the bank does and withdraw the funds it doesn't mean I get to keep them. And yes I'm a massive scumbag who deserves to be in jail for trying.

After Black Friday he could have come forward and said he'd do everything he can to make the players whole. instead, he kept the player funds and told the players to go **** themselves. This guy doesn't deserve a pass. His apology is empty without an overt effort to make things right.

Have lederer do an official apology letter and pin it along with dutch boyd

Buy me into a few WSOP events and I might consider your apology.

Quick reminder of what he did have to fork over to the DOJ:
http://www.reviewjournal.com/busines...settle-lawsuit

No idea what percentage this represents of the distributions from the player pool he received.

he kills poker boom =( can´t forgive him

My prediction is you will receive such an apology from another well known poker player in the future...by then how many will be hooked on casino gambling due to his shilling?

I remember a few years ago playing at my casino and a guy I got along with asked me if he could borrow a little money. I told him, "nothing personal, but I don't ever trust poker players".

What I find amazing is how some are so sure of the product they are promoting when they don't really know anything at all behind the software they promote. They will flip flop when it is self serving, throw rocks when they live in glass houses. Some dream that they get a sponsorship deal.

The most honest poker player I heard was Daniel Colman. He has probably done more for the aspiring poker player than anyone else who played a hand or won a tournament. He spoke facts. Howard is just one in a long line.

About the "I take full responsibility" schtick.

There was a story about a judge somewhere in the U.S who was trying a case and the defendants lawyer didn't show up. Judge waited for whatever period of time he needed to and then he charged the defendant with contempt of court. Guy was sent to prison for whatever period of time. Eventually his lawyer made it to the court and told the judge that "he was sorry and took full responsibility". The judge shot back "oh really. Are you going to take the place of your client in prison?"

Bottom line, what does "I take full responsibility" really mean? Politicians state it all the time and then head back to their office. I am all for giving people second chances, but the debt to society must have been fulfilled, I have no opinion one way or another because I didn't get screwed of any money, but it's obvious many are still jaded.

I don't know Howard personally but my guess would be that there were and are FAR dirtiest, more dishonest people in the poker world than he is. Not an exoneration, but I would be surprised if he had premeditated all that went down with FTP. It still begs the question however, what does "taking full responsibility" mean?

The real question is, was Lederer wearing his Penn State hat when he gave the apology?

Johnnyfry making some very good points. ^^+^^^

nailed it

Really hope I see him at the WSOP. Not everyone is going to be quiet

Howard is 1st ballot Poker HoF now that he has issued this apology.

Wow...
I had some "respect" for that guy when I was a total newbie in poker and thought he was a "real pro"... hahahahahahah such laughable now the time passed

Howard, you made millions on players that you screwed and all you can show now is a "sorry" ?
Sorry for what exactly ? Not to have money anymore to sustain your conman's lifestyle ?
Have some respect for yourself and just never show yourself again at a "public" poker table, ever.
Your good friend Chris did it and it seems to work well for him.

This also.

Howard you're an idiot to offer an apology.

88% of the people in this thread have scammed in one little or grand way or another. But that's not that bad because they have all rationalized it in a way that keeps their "good name" intact. And yes they will all deny it and instead clame lifelong innocence.

But that's all besides the point.

Howard you have to realize that these are the same people that do nothing but moan only in front of their TV as they continue to get ripped off by their governments, media, and corporations.

Kill an innocent person on the street, what is their response: "it's his fault, he shouldn't have resisted"

Wipe a server that contains state property clean, "it's OK, the Republicans are just on a witch hunt"

Destabilize the world economy and steal people's home while getting bailed out, "that's outrageous, at least my bank is innocent"

Want marijuana legalized? Nope, the government has decided so they are powerless and can do nothing.

What's more? You can guarantee they will reward these same folks with their votes as soon as the opportunity comes up.

Empty barrel is what they are. They will shake your hands and ask about your beautiful girlfriends. Maybe even ask what year your Bentley is. However, I want to be very clear:. They will do nothing beyond type up a complaint only within the borders of this forum.

Yes the events of black Friday was traumatic for many of us. However there is no blame at all to be divvied up. Only one actor is responsible for the financial blowback and that is your government.

You all claim freedom yet you can't gamble at will. Or maybe you can as long as your masters think it's OK. For example, it's OK to blow your entire life savings in Las Vegas if you want. What about lottery? Yes, go ahead blow it all on 5 random numbers. Do you care for stocks? Sure, bet it all on Apple. However, online poker from the comfort of your home? Nope that's too evil.

I really don't think that FTP or its owners were trying to scam anyone. I truly believe that fallout of black friday was simply the result of bad business practice. They over leveraged themselves and didn't segregate player funds and as a result when everything came crashing down it came down hard. It was a run on the bank in essence. It was a compounding list of ****ups that lead to this. The worst of which was probably trying to buy/bribe a US bank. Once the lights went out, it was every man for himself. That's how it was and always will be.

It was like he fell right into the trap that was the UIGEA. It doesn't explicitly out law online gambling, however it does outlaw the transfer of money. He and others tried to find a loophole but there really wasn't one. In their attempt to receive and transmit payments they broke all kinds of laws, dealt with shady characters that ripped them off and over leveraged themselves make up for such rip offs and compete with Stars. It seems like the Schienberg's prepared for that day and Lederer and company did not. One group made out with 5 bil, the other group probably less than 200mm overall. One was prepared for the end game, the other was playing catch-up and got caught with their pants down.

For those who forget, here's the full text of the settlement for Howard and the DOJ:

http://www.onlinepokerreport.com/wp-...nt-lederer.pdf

The government demanded $42m in the settlement, but what actually was agreed to (scroll down) is significantly less, I'm guess under $5m, probably significantly less.

It's a travesty that no one, especially Bitar, did jail time or was even negatively affected by all of this financially.

Howard, where is Chris Ferguson?

Rich old degen, sitting on his stolen money and getting bored for not being able to play the game of poker. Makes up a story about a wedding and a wake-up call and writes a whole lot of BS, hoping that the community will buy it and he will have fun playing the WSOP this summer. I feel bad about what DN said, like it would've been something on Lederers chest that he could finally get rid of. Will feel really awful if the bastard even cashes anything this summer.

I forgive you Howard, chin up champ

Does this person of high intergety still have tens of millions or possibly hundreds of millions in his own personal bank account from his ownership of Full Tilt?

Hi Ray Bitar and his relatives.

People screw up. We're not perfect. Making mistakes does not make someone a bad person. It's how one responds to those mistakes that reveals their character. Howard Lederer revealed himself to be a giant POS.

Even this latest apology reflects that. You can't take responsibility now when the **** hit the fan so long ago and so many others had to do the hard work to clean up the mess. He has his head so far up his ass that even though there were many forum comments, blogs, news articles that essentially said the same thing, it takes a friend to say something similar many years later for him to finally get it.

And what is it he "gets". He's basically still saying I had nothing to do with the "shortfall".... first of all... shortfall? No douchebag... theft.... but you guys think that I did and I did kinda pat my back while I was doing all the great things that made FTP great that I guess I should take some of the blame... err... i mean responsibility.. and by responsibility I mean I'll man up and say I'm sorry that the other people at FTP shortfalled your money.

When a good person does something terrible that causes one or more people great pain, it causes great pain for themselves. It's a human trait called empathy. Something Lederer seems to lack but apparently understands the concept because he thinks we should have empathy for him. If a good person accidentally hits a pedestrian with their car, they feel like ****, they don't have a press conference saying what a hero they are for bringing an injured pedestrian to the hospital. Heck, even if you're not behind the wheel, you're asleep in the back seat while someone else is driving you don't go around trying to tell people what a hero you are.

Lederer can apologize until he's blue in the face, it won't change what we learned about what type of person he really is.

What most people believe is that he had more control in the later years than he implied afterwards. And I believe that's even confirmed by things he said in his first apology video.

Back when all this stuff was unfolding I was posting a lot of my thoughts on here and elsewhere. Just my interpretation of things based on what I understand about people. I am so far removed from the people behind all this that I didn't have any inside info but there are similarities between people that I think it's somewhat easy to draw inferences from similar behavior. I caught a lot of **** for some of the things I said and had people a few people call me a troll.

At one point I got a response from someone who was fairly intimate with the situation who said something along the lines of nobody had it more right than I did.

If you do a search for "Is Howard Lederer a Master Manipulator" you'll find an article I wrote in response to his first "apology". Read that, then read his latest apology and tell me what you think.

Sorry for not linking directly to that post but I don't feel like getting banned for linking to my own blog.