a possible downside is interpol freezes all money pending investigation pumping the liquidator fees even higher.

Not saying you shouldn't do it, but i think that could be a possible side effect. That said things aren't looking overly great from the liquidators from what I can tell from following this thread.

i apologise if this subject has already been covered but the thread is huge.
i had an e-mail from a company called icebearpoker, offering me a deal that i could promote to other players as an afilliate. i had never heard of them and couldn't find the site listed on pokerscout. i eventually had several messages via MSN with them and it turns out that they are on the microgaming network.
i told them i wasn't happy referring players to that network and they asked 'is it because of the TUSK incident'?
i said yes and they stated that they were in fact in the process of going into business with tusk but the setup wasn't completed before they liquidated.
apparently a company called 'Playshare' totally operates this site now and they have nothing to do with tusk.
i just wondered if anyone had heard of either icebearpoker before or know what 'playshare' are all about?

Did you ever wonder what happened to PokerShare? A few months after they got kicked off the Excapsa (UltimateBet) network they reincarnated on the Tain network. After iPoker merged with Tain they moved again to Microgaming presumably because they wanted to keep (some of) their U.S. players. In the process they added casino games and some new names. I think the overall package is PlayShare and the individual products are called PokerShare and CasinoShare.

No idea about icebearpoker. Perhaps PS is expanding its business by entering the white-label skin niche recently vacated by Tusk.

I could be wrong. But I doubt that Interpol would ever get involved with online poker.

white collar crime is one of Interpol's biggest specialties. I can assure you, judges and police hate it when people are scammed out of their money/ have it stolen from them. Interpol would be very interested in what went down here.

I will go to the police station tomorrow, and I'll let you know how I got on.

I live in England.

BigT, have you gone to your local police station? If so, what did they have to say? I feel like somebody with as much money as you tied up is more likely to be listened to.

http://www.interpol.com/Public/Finan...ud/default.asp

http://www.interpol.com/Public/contact.asp

I know that interpol deals with corruption of all sorts. However I am very skeptical given their funding and that they notoriously avoid dealing with any crimes where the dealings were of a questionable ethical nature. In short I don't think interpol would ever want to try and police internet gambling and would probably lose much of their funding if they did.

That said if they will handle it great.

EDIT, They recently made a major bust on gambling leading up to the olympics
http://www.associatedcontent.com/art...an.html?cat=17

I really don't see them as trying to help out online gamblers.

Id like to thank battlefield poker, rakereduction,microgaming and tusk for taking all my money but you made me a centurion!!

I wrote letters to them, but they said I have to go through my local police station. Unfortunately I am currently in Las Vegas, but I plan on contacting them the moment I return.

And battlefield never said a word since a long time!!! Anyone see any $?

***Official Thread Song***

Life is a lemon and I WANT MY MONEY BACK

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Z0WuN7tnyyg

bigt2k4, have you considered flying out to Australia to demand a face to face with the liquidators after vegas?

From what I've heard showing up in person will do little good Th eliquidators don;t seem to want to talk to anyone. If you do plan to fly out contact them a head of time to make sure they will meet when you do get there otherwise it will be a huge waste.

I'm late to the party... Basically, I've been oblivious to this entire situation. I have a Battlefield Poker account, and actually logged in about a month ago just to cash out my entire account balance. Only a couple days ago did I even get suspicious, which led me to this thread just now, lol... I do have a screenshot of the withdrawal request, and the transaction still appears on my account.

Anyway, I sorta skimmed a couple of the most recent pages of this thread, but what is the general consensus on how this will all end? Basically, what's our EV here... Thanks everyone for all the info posted so far.

nobody knows. the case is in the hands of the liquidators. see page 1 for link to cliff notes. none of us are optimistic as we have been categorized as "unsecured creditors" which puts up pretty far down on the totem pole.

Bigt: I wrote it up and gave it to my local police to pass over to interpol last week fwiw.

4 months they've been on the job now and we've heard nothing, still no confirmation from them for my proof of debt form...so sick.

Well, well, well, I have been doing some surfing and may have some good news for all of you who have been affected by this fiasco.

While, I haven't been able to locate any protection for players in Australian or Vanuatu legislation, I have in Queensland.

Tusk and/or their subordinate companies had offices in Queensland which makes them bound by Queensland law!

http://www.legislation.qld.gov.au/LE...erGamPPA98.pdf

It appears that this legislation requires players balances be held in trust for the players.

It might be worth it to either contact the Office of Liquor, Gaming and Racing, 33 Charlotte Street Brisbane to inquire whether or not they investigate possible breaches of the Interactive Gambling (Player Protection) Act 1998 or pusue an action through a lawyer in Bribane.

OMG this sound slike it could be very good news
BTW shouldn't the liquidators know this?

I'm not so sure about these Liquidators. My recollection of the process is that the Liquidators are supposed to act in the BEST interest of the creditors.

Normally a first creditors meeting is held fairly swiftly so that if the creditors want to question the liquidators and perhaps replace them it can be accomplished without running up huge costs.

This situation with the huge cash reserve to draw upon, it seems that SimsPartners is dragging their feet. It could be because my guesstimate is approximately $50K/month is flowing from the Tusk accounts into the liquidators pockets.

Definitely dragging their feet...

http://simspartners.com.au/

They have just been through a merger. It's unlikely they have had their mind on the job.

i believe Sims have already said that the funds are not held in trust. If it's some sort of violation, it's news to us..

I agree Sims has said this.

However, Sims may be working under the premise that Tusk was a Vanuatu company where players accounts in trust is not a requirement.

Tusk's Vanuatu lawyers may not have been aware that a portion of the company business was to be exercised in Queensland.

The Queensland law is quite clear that if ANY portion of a company and/or their subsiduarie's or agent's business is conducted in Queensland their laws that precedence.

This is definitely a possibility that should be pursued.

Otherwise be prepared to take only what Sims deems available for distribution to unsecured creditors which in my humble opinion will be less than 50 cents on the dollar.

The question then becomes would the directors of Tusk pony up a shortfall of several million dollars or spend a possible 2 years in jail?

Mellow-

I've only skimmed some of the document you linked, and found it very difficult to decipher, but perhaps it does provide some hope. What I'm wondering is if Tusk gets to ignore this law because they did not accept Australian players?