Hopefully BigT can run it by his lawyer/dad and see if it's any use.

It also brings up the question of why funds were originally held in trust and then at some point removed. If Mellow is correct it would make sense that the original owners held funds in trust because they were required to by law. The new owners may have either found a loophole or illegally changed balances to unsecure.

I spent 30 years deciphering laws and finding loopholes to exploit.

Australian law prohibits online gaming for Australian residents so Tusk while registered as a Vanuatu corporation conducted their business in Queensland therefore the Queensland law must be adhered to.

Tusk may have either ignored or as I previously speculated were unaware of the law.

I have read the appropriate sections of the law and it is quite clear that any company holding players balances must do so in the player's name thusly effecting a trust situation.

Both Canadian law and Australian law are based on the British system and to effect a trust in Canada the trust account shall have the persons name attached to it "In Trust",... excepting real estate, lawyers and auto dealers where they funds deposited for the credit of a specific party do not have to be named as trust funds for that party.

I think someone who has a balance in limbo should be in contact with the Queensland government and/or a Brisbane solicitor.

In addition,...a group should demand a first creditors meeting to explore the relationship that SimsPartners has with the Tusk shareholder's.

Ken Talbot was the largest shareholder, however, the second largest was Talbot's Chief Finanacial Officer at MacArthur Minerals and he is a Chartered Accountant,... so it would seem to follow that SimsPartners may already be friendly with the Tusk shareholders.

It is not unheard of for a company going into liquidation to hire as liquidators a liquidation firm that would perform a "soft" liquidation,..ie not look too hard at the directors of a company for any wrong doing.

That isn't quite the case. Australian law a while back "Froze" online gaming. Ie those already in could stay but no new licences would be given to operate in Australia while servicing Australians.

Tusk could operate from Australia so long as they didn't service aussies since they came in after this law. The same applies to the merge gaming network.

This law was more meant for sportsbooks I feel because at the time Australian sportsbooks were booming online. There is a significant number of them.

There is nothing in our law that prohibits us from playing as individuals. Just ones that stop new companies servicing us from Australia.

Sorry for the misunderstanding,..I'm really going have to proof my posts more carefully.

What I meant was that Aussie sites couldn't cater to Aussie patrons under their laws.

I didn't notice in the Acts that I perused the fact that pre-existing licensees were grandfathered,...

Mellowman thanks for getting your nose dirty regarding this stuff. I have to admit you're giving me a slight erection/hope with all this talk. Maybe we should pool some funds and hire you to break some balls down there..

Regarding Sims/Tusk possibly being in bed together, this is something i was concerned about from the start. Although MLSchaff mentioned to me in a recent conversation that an accounting firm really needs to be wary of how they're perceived (i.e. are they reputable) as this could affect future business if they're considered shady. But you never know who's on the take..It's just human nature.

I think almost all of the players involved are willing to give up 10% of their money to get the rest. And that would be quite a large amount the person to solve it would receive...

i feel the same way... and even if only some of the people that got 10k+ stuck would do it, it would amount to a pretty nice payday for someone willing to pursue this more aggressively.

i would give right now 10% to some1 i can trust and i also would travel with this person to australia , like RIGHT NOW JUST SAY I SEARCH A FLY AND I GO:d
but with the expectations to do there something what helps all of us :|
I have time till October -_- please remember that im not able to stay at 5* hotels ^^ because im grinding nl25 and not thinking about spending to much money for unneccasry things i cant afford or better i can but i dont want to waste money for something like this , but about the rest im still serious

Any predictions to when we'll get our money back?

Many, but none remotely accurate.

It hurts whenever I have to bump this.

I love how the Poker Road radio guys (BPS is the one I listen to) slam UB and Absolute every show and always say choose your site wisely. And then after that say how great Doyle's room is because they sponser the show.

Of course they wont mention in a million years that Doyle's room in a Microgaming site and thousands of people have lost their whole bankrolls playing at a Microgaming site.

this whole thing is so depressing and ****ed up.

whats happening with the interpol thing now btw?

Dunno, BigT came up with the idea and I fired a letter into my local police station to forward on to Interpol. Haven't heard anything back but whatever, if it goes down on record and a load of other letters turn up it might get something moving.

The one thing about it though is that we really don't need the liquidation process slowed up. If a lawyer could look into the above info about them having to adhere to Queensland law and see if a civil case could be taken against them, then it'd be brilliant but as is I think Simspartners will go as slow as possible in order to milk as much out of the player pool as they can, the last thing we need is something making them go even slower!

Every time I look at this thread I get angrier, I know liquidation isn't the fastest process going but they've been on it since March 6th now and we've heard literally nothing. They're not even confirming the receipt of proof of debt forms anymore either it appears. I've emailed them in an effort to get the confirmation like 5 times now and asked for updates twice too and they've haven't written back once.

I think if the skins hear anything they'll let us know, if they know anything and aren't telling us it'd be pretty scummy but they've been reasonably good so far.

The 2+2 pokercast mentioned the debacle a while ago, I haven't listened to it recently, have they said anything else about it does anyone know?

The amount of people still playing on mgs sickens me, but I suppose whoever it was that said "They'll remain ignorant as long as it doesn't affect them personally" was spot on.

Nothing new from MGS themselves either, I'm sure they would have heard something by now, surely they would have?

I was about to post the exact same thing. Maybe send them an e-mail or something. I think they actually read them.

Wolitzer, I'm still holding out hope that mgs will come in and give us some kind of deal if the liquidators don't come through for us. My suspicion is that MGS is in a waiting pattern and letting this whole liquidator situation run its course before putting up the money themselves.

That would be ideal.

If they don't then I think we should pile our cash together and get their management, and Tusks management, shot.

I think many of us feels like punish them real hard but to shoot them is imo at least questionable. Microgamings arrogance towards the players is flagrant.
An idea popped up how to punish the poker industry in a legal and most tangible way. The best way is, i believe, to create a player owned poker site that guarantees fairness and best conditions for the players. Lowest possible rake, players funds held in trust and aggressive marketing to get a large player base. Any profit will be payed back to the share owners, the players. If we see how much we pay yearly in rake, it's easy to see that we together have the financial strength to do this.
What do you think? How do we go on from here?

Wasn't this the aim of WPX?

The aim of WPX was to draw players in with 100% rakeback in the hope that they would bet on sports.

I e-mailed Big Poker Sundays months ago and asked them to mention this on air since they have been very good about bashing Absolute and UB for their scandals. I'm not surprised that they value their Doyle's Room sponsorship highly enough to sweep this under the rug though. I would encourage everyone to e-mail them again and ask that they discuss the Tusk situation on air. Same goes for 2p2 Pokercast - they promised to keep listeners updated on the situation, but haven't mentioned it in a long time. Now that WSOP is about over, maybe they can find some airtime for it.

This is almost on the 3rd page ...

How much would ad-space on 2+2 be so we can make some sort of banner to NOT play on microgaming?

Meh they would never accept it... but I would pay for it if possible

Still writing here and meanwhile im quite angry , everytime i have to read that theres no ****ing news about this ****.

Besides im sad about the fact that we still dont know how to use this Queensland law and if its useful for us,isnt there a lawyer who can check this out.

Next thing is that its so hard to organize ourself :| there are so many people many seem to didnt care anymore whats happening here.

I feel very bad about this all dont know how long i can stand this "pressure" not to do something "stupid"? additionally im in a miserable situation , quite aimless and really dont have anything to lose :|