c'mon, they would not have caught FTP so off guard if Howards sister knew about BF... what kind of egocentrical cold harded bitch do you have to be not to tell your BROTHER something like that ... ... ... oh ...

Now u're saying I'm not a good person?

Look, I asked you to elaborate after you made a point and you haven't. I'm willing to listen. No need to get personal with attacks, especially with someone who wants to hear your side of the argument.

It's obvious to me... and it has nothing to do with them feeling bad.

First, this is a highly politicized case. DOJ likes it when they can settle for hundos of millions. It looks good publically and it is a huge factor in launching public careers. Also consider that its way less messy and there's no uncertainty with going to trial and losing. Instead thry settle and move on with the next guys on their hitlist.

Since FTP folded due to the lawsuit, there was no money left to settle anyway, so the DOJ is generally happy that they get to bring down a multinational company forever. That also looks insanely good for the DOJ's image, and its like the 2nd best possible outcome that they want.

However, there is collateral damage here. Whether you consider players as victims is immaterial. What matters here is that this is a highly politicized matter and it so happens that GBT could give DOJ money AND save some player's accounts. If GBT was the only option, DOJ happily does it. It makes everyone look better than to have no one paid a cent and players screwed 350mil because of the DOJ. That's bad publicity when you consider how sensitive the govt is when they deal with fraud because of madoff and the other 5-6 or so other people who've been caught running multimillion ponzi schemes the last few years.

I'm not getting dragged into this **** again. God knows how many hours I've wasted in this ****ing awful miserable **** hole. You're right. There. Now you don't get the long ass debate you want.

Missed the most important one of all, Joeys challenge is highlight for the week, and possibly the near future (not next week)... 19st jeweleye I think.

Oh yeah

This is not a highly politicized case. This is peanuts and it's not on the publics radar. Ask randoms on the street about it and the vast majority will say 'huh'? $350M is peanuts, these companies are peanuts and busting them isn't a huge career boost.

And it seems to me that we ought to rethink that 'players are screwed out of $350M' part if what we read about the GBT offer is true: $16M pays 95% of the players? How many players does that leave over? Ask Mr. Random again what he thinks about a relatively few players losing money on the misfortune of an off shore gambling site. I'd expect a shoulder shrug.

How many statements you think Preet makes on cases publically?

How many did he make on this? IDK, but I know that he gets on the cover of Time for the real highly politicized cases.

Once the DOJ dubbed FTP to be a global Ponzi-like scheme, whether they 'wanted' anyone paid back or not became irrelevant, they legally defined the players as crime victims potentially entitled to remission.

You don't have to give them any credit for altruism, it simply would be much easier for them to strike one solid agreement where everyone gets paid, as opposed to attempting to force liquidation and asset forfeitures in various foreign jurisdictions in order to fund a world wide remission effort.

The problem with the GBT deal was not that it didn't make ROW players whole (they may not actually care), the problem is that it didn't change their legal status (unless they had less than $100 on account) from victims - some might have even argued they were being made victims of a second fraudulent scheme.

ROW players would still have been entitled to refuse to play on FTP2 and file remission claims (those in fenced-in countries would have not even been eligible to play), which would have created a bigger mess than the one they were hoping to clean up.

^^^
THIS!
PokerStars will get Immunity in Exchange for Buying Full Tilt

The most plausible so far for all of this crap

i mean this has been discussed a couple times before iirc... but what can we infer is causing this limbo'd negotiation?

WickedChops reported two weeks after that blog that Scheinberg will not accept an agreement in which he would have to admit to any wrongdoing. The DOJ does not have the authority to unilaterally dismiss all the criminal charges, so it's a stalemate.

Well, after 1872 pages we should have learned that we can't infer anything

If this is true why is there any optimism behind this deal?
This also should have been obvious from the beginning if this is the case. What are Isai's options?

wow srsly? link to this? i don't remember ever seeing this.

The options are Isai goes to court and has his day trying to prove the case for poker, but almost certainly will do time 12-18 months.

He does not agree and the deal folds, PS hoped that the fact the would cover all FTP debts that would leverage them for a deal on Isai, but althugh the DOJ wants to do the deal, the have to get a custodial sentence of some sort.

Isai actually bankrolled the payment processor case where they eventually pled and did a deal. He wanted to see how that would play out in court, to gauge his chances. But although he paid all legal fees, they bottled it and pled guilty.

I really do not know how this will play out, one of them (DOJ or Isai) has to give way for it to move forward.

Isai has another option. Ignore the criminal charges, and continue to run a profitable business from a location he won't be extradited for.

That is the option, but if you a billionaire and you stuck on the IOM for ever, it would be like a prison anyhow! Also Isai is not stupid, with the US to open up in the near future, where would PS be without its entry to it?

Almost certainly PS will never enter the US market again, BUT FTP could.

This thread is a bit like standing in a field in holland. I look around and all i see is a whole lot of nothin.

It's kinda funny that you say that at the end of the page with the most useful/interesting discussion this thread has had in about 20 pages.

While this is a very reasonable speculation on the current situation, I think it should be noted that that's what this is, speculation, unless there is some more information that has come out that I'm not aware of.

Since you're quoting WickedChops, they also posted as recently as a few days ago that the deal was still in the process of being completed. If there was a major stalemate like the one you're talking about, it's reasonable to assume they would likely have reported on the stalemate re: Isai, especially since they appeared to have enough information to make the statement you quoted.

Oh, and BTW, Chinamaniac just posted that the deal is pretty much done and there are only a few small things that have to be ironed out, and that the Isai thing is not an issue and he will be able to walk free. So there, Chinamaniac said so. I'm gonna go ahead and click "Submit Reply" and duck under my desk now before I get flamed to high heaven.

I realize this is Stars we're considering but we've heard this before and it lasted months with no deal. As always I'll believe it when I see it. I hope he's right for once.

morning...
*wonders if there will ever be a page without the C word being used
ironic that someone who cant post here gets mentioned every page....

Well, unfortunately for him, people equate "being wrong twice" with "therefore has no credible information, is completely full of ****, and should no longer be able to post".

The only way forward for Isai and the deal is for him to do time, however by doing that he places PokerStars in a tricky position but leaves FTP to go into the US.

One thing is for sure the US DOJ wont back down on the custodial sentence for him, no matter how much he offers to pay of FTP players (us poor sods).

Maybe if he gets the same as the payment guys 6 months, he may go for it, but the judge in that case was fuming on the deal and thought it should have been longer.

I really hope it is done but who will back down?