I thought you knew.
Didn't want to get flamed and tried to get somebody with more authority to say it.

It is true and should be very easy to verify.

Thanks, but I am perfectly happy with my answer

Gotta love a guy that wants to bet against tens of thousands of players on this site that they won't get their money.

Joey have you considered hanging out and Daniel's site and getting TFO of 2+2. You would make a lot of ppl happy here.

Half grunching - is there any reason to believe that bitar or a proxy would (threaten to) sabotage a possibly nearing completed ps deal because of the new charges on bitar? Possibly as part of plea negotiations or merely out of spite.

Sort of a "ok deal is done if bitar surrenders and faces these charges, ok I surrender let's finish the deal, oh BTW here's 100 years worth of new charges, fu if I'm getting more than slap on wrist deals off".

http://www.scribd.com/doc/98897950/B...-S8-Indictment

Wow. Just finished reading the indictment. It is a MUST read (see link above). So ****ing greedy. I just hope Bitar isn't the only one to go to jail and Lederer, Ferguson, and Gordon do 10+ years too. That's what they deserve.

Be prepared for your neighboors, coworkers, and friends to see articles on major outlets and tell you "see I knew that online stuff was a scam, you were playing on a ponzi"*&^%$#@

To whom and for what?

Hi Howard

To be certain, Judge Kaplan is not actually *required* to recuse himself here. He left Paul Weiss nearly 20 years ago. It may be his practice to recuse himself in these instances, but there is no statutory requirement that he do so.

Is this the scenario?

• Ireland would not extradite based on the original indictment of "Playing Poker Without a License" and "money laundering".
  
• DOJ develops case of fraud.
  
• Ireland discovers that fraud is indeed a crime in their country.
  
• Pressure on Bitar to turn himself in or be extradited.

"Judge Kaplan was trying to squeeze out a diamond flush but he came up short and Mr. Eisen is futilely hoping that his queens are going to stand up."

That indictment reads like a script for the show American Greed. I can almost hear Stacy Keach's narrative voice when reading that mess.

Actually, twenty bucks says American Greed will cover FTP sometime in the next few years.

I worked for FT for about 4 years, running the Academy office in Vegas. It's difficult to describe how angry and disgusted I became reading this indictment. For a considerable period of my employment, I was working to support a massive fraud. Thinking about it makes me ill.

I could go on forever about specifics that really kill me -- the greed, the incompetence, the overbearing HR, the idea that till the end we were continuing to work on things (see: Onyx Cup) that had no hope of coming to fruition before the company collapsed.

As much as I hope for severe punishments for many people involved in the company (including Howard and Gil), I'm also hoping for a quick resolution. When it's done and settled I won't have to read about it and become furious each time there's a new development.

Jay

got any lobster stories?

You should open a FTP question thread. I'm sure many people would like to ask you questions about the company if you don't mind answering them.

LOL, did you not read the last half dozen times people have mentioned it?

Maybe you should read the conversation before you comment. I wanted to bet months ago when it was obvious nothing was happening any time soon. I will still take a bet on a certain time frame. I would love to be wrong and get my money back tomorrow. I still don't see anything being solved in under 2 months although I am more hopeful than I have been through the whole ordeal.

The company had so much going for it:
-all the top players' endorsements
-arguably, the best software
-the highest stakes cash games online
-the most and best innovation (Rush Poker, Multi-Entry Tournaments, The Daily Doubles etc...)

If they hadn't been greedy and stupid, in the long run they probably would have made more money by either selling the company or from the ongoing cash flows than they did by stealing all our money for their short term greed. Sad.

He will probably fight it to the bitar end

The March 15th 2008 conference call listed in the indictment is interesting. Apparently at that point Bitar tried to tell the other owners/shareholders that they needed to get their money straight and hold enough for player funds because of the risk of payment processors stealing monies and also the DOJ coming after them.

I wonder which of the owners/shareholders on that call disagreed with this idea?

I can't cut and paste from that document....but it seems clear that this was the tipping point where they had a chance to bring it back around to a real business and decided not to... "they" being whomever was on that conference call.

(section 20 of the indictment)

Doubtful since while FTP might have civil liability to US customers if their funds aren't returned, much of their case for criminal (mens rea) fraud is based on how they dealt with ROW customers after BF.

With no tortious acts occurring in NY or against anyone in NY, Ireland would likely have offered to prosecute him there, since they can make a better case for personal jurisdiction.

In my opinion the new charges are purely political, but political in a good sense that when they announce victims of a global ponzi scheme getting repaid, the media won't be questioning the leniency given to PS.

Only while there is a Ray of hope.

His greed really BIT him in the ARse.

These jokes are fully tilting me.

I think you have misinterpreted what point 20 says:

In the conference call he is saying to the fellow owners that FTP need to keep more then 100% of player funds in their banks. Also says Bitar and CC-1 (Lederer?, Ferguson?) agreed that FTP need to keep cash at the company to repay players if the DOJ were to take action.

From this paragraph, it looks as though Bitar misled the other owners, and everyone else (incl. AGCC) into thinking that there was 100% player funds in FTP's banks, when there wasn't.