Yes it's funny people see the DOJ as good. Their random seizures of money and the Feds making deposits difficult to process for FTP (which led to phantom deposits) is what led to the money shortfalls. True the people at FTP were poor businessmen (paying out dividends while this is happening) but if not for US/DOJ we would have vibrant competition between FTP and Stars and both companies would have kept paying people out.

Or at the very least stars would have bought ftp up and paid the players already

It's true they were the root cause. And then later on after they were the catalyst for poor businessmen to make bad mgmt decisions to try to stay alive in business (fault lies on both sides) then the DOJ had the gall later to basically say,

"oops sorry there really isn't any federal law that makes online poker illegal and we had no right to block all these processors nationwide or do all that other **** we did, but now we'll just pick a state law under which we can continue this witch hunt."

Lots of blame to go around, but that's old news. Now the DOJ is my best friend if they send me back the cash.

I must have missed this because that's not how I remember it.

The DOJ sent a statement to congress in December 2011 which boiled down to this quote:
“We conclude that the Criminal Division’s premise is incorrect and that the Wire Act prohibits only the transmission of communications related to bets or wagers on sporting events or contests,”

Sorry to clutter this thread with this, but I had to respond one last time.

Right, and the Wire Act was not used for the seizure of bank accounts, as I recall.

You can still submit a petition even though it's 6 weeks past the deadline. Why is that? Do you think if anyone was late it will still be processed?

it wouldn't hurt to try

From the claims web site FAQ:

Anyone have a clue at a realistic time payouts will happen?

Undisputed claims are expected to be paid by 3/31/14

source?

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...&postcount=447

fulltiltpokerclaims.com

"We expect payments to be made with respect to such Petitions with confirmed balances by March 31, 2014."

Hi Rich. I am considering changing my petition from a disputed claim to an undisputed claim. Patirck from GCG confirmed that this can be done, but could not guarantee that I would be paid by 3/31/14 with the rest of the undisputed class.

Since there is no information regarding the review/payment of disputed funds, and the fact that I need the money as soon as possible because of an emergnecy, I am considering changing petition.

The amount I'm disputing is only 4% of my balance, so I no longer think it is worth disputing. Is there any info on disputed time line?

Hi Rich. I currently have a disputed claim filed for $2,000 which is a small percentage of the balance GCG has on record for me.

I am considering changing my petition to undisputed, because there is no time line for disputed claims and I unfortunately have a family emergency.

Patrick from GCG said changing the petition was possible and it was probable that I would be paid before the disputed claims where reviewed, but he couldn't guarantee it.

What do you think I should do, I need the money as soon as possible.

Anyone?

No one has reported so far that they have received the updated email for affiliates.

I made this post in NVG and am posting here as well. I spoke to DoJ at 4:30pm ET today.

---------

I spoke with AFMLS/DoJ staff today and they informed me that they have approved approximately 30,000 undisputed player claims totaling approx $82 million dollars in remissions. Garden City should be making a formal announcement on its website, fulltiltpokerclaims.com, within the next 24 hours. Players with undisputed claims should be looking for an email from Garden City Group within the next few weeks with instructions on how to receive their payment. The DoJ could not provide me with a definitive date on when these emails will go out and when payments will be processed. But it looks like it will be in advance of their March 31 deadline.

Further, they indicated that some of the 30,000 undisputed claims were filed incorrectly or incompletely, therefore those individuals will receive an email outlining the issues with their claim. I do not believe this is a significant number, but significant enough for the DoJ to raise it.

The question of affiliates and pros is still unresolved. The DoJ and Garden City are working on this very diligently and I trust they will be sharing news with this affected class of players soon. As they have indicated, there will be a new filing window for those players.

Finally, there is still not a timeline for disputed claims that were filed by the deadline. They are still working on those and hope more info will be available once the undisputed funds are released. FTP players who for some reason have still not filed a claim can still do it and those claims will be considered.

Overall, I was very impressed that the DoJ worked through these issues and shared the info with the PPA. It has been a long time coming, but I think phase I and 82 million of players money will be returned very soon.

John A. Pappas
Poker Players Alliance
Executive Director

Soon

So what would a realistic expectation for disputed claims to be reviewed and paid out given this good news?

Full Tilt Poker Claims Administrator Garden City Group announces payments for timely, undisputed claims to be made before the end of Feb. 2014: www.fulltiltpokerclaims.com

It sounds like, from what Patrick at GCG says, switching will make it faster. I suspect that's the case, as they've preliminarily approved the undisputed amount.

One thing that seems certain now is that everyone who gets paid will get the full amount accepted as valid - no percentage payouts based on the amount of money available. That is, since they are paying out the undisputed claims in full without determining the final amounts of disputed claims and claims by affiliates, there must be enough money available to cover all claims in full. And no waiting for all claims to be finalized before any payments go out.

I think it is slightly ridiculous that players with disputed balances cannot get paid the undisputed amount at the same time as everyone else, and then have the amount disputed for be reviewed later (at their undisclosed timeline).

I have a good bit that I am disputing for (About 20% of undisputed balance), which I've shown bank statements, the spreadsheet that FTP sent showing all transactions etc - but I also would like to be paid asap. It bothers me to know that I am not guaranteed this money will be even approved, and I also have literally no idea what the timeline is for when the disputed claims will be reviewed and paid.