This version ^^^ Sounds a little more correct.

PS may have figured they could make a deal after Mar 16 since GBT had not yet completed it. Stars could have thought it would have been more beneficial for them to own FTP. They could have been hoping to keep Isai out of jail or Isai hoping He could keep himself out of Jail. So they step in and offer more than what GBT was going to pay.

I think and I have said this twice now. DOJ has to make a point here. Someone Has TO GO TO JAIL. Not just Bitar I am pretty sure they want Isai too.

I don't think by any means that anyone else running FTP could grab enough market share to give stars a run for their money but I would figure if you have a chance to buy a major competitor and do it then that's even better.

Tapie deal was the only deal on the table. We are not really 100% sure on how close they were to closing it. They may have not been close at all.

Fact here is We really do not know what is going on with the negotiations. Everyone who gets a small tid bit of news and shares it, by the time It has made it's way through the poker world it's not even close to what the news originally was. Understand ? Yes No?

So many people putting their own spin and adding stuff to it makes it even more juicy and more people get involved until the story is so twisted and full of speculation it's nowhere close to what the original statement was.

This is why they call it a rumor mill.

Glantz doesn't say that. He says that OTOH, PS wants something that the DOJ cannot give and OTOH, that Caesars somehow someway it's going to stop PS implying that they influence the DOJ.

It's a badly written bad argument.

I really hope the deal between the DOJ and Stars wasn't scuttled because the DOJ is demanding jail time for Isai Scheinberg. Between Stars, FTP, and Cereus, he's the only one that actually had player money on hand. He's the only one who ran his company like a business, not as a personal atm for him and his buddies, and kept true to all the promises on the poker sites we saw about player funds being safe.

If the DOJ is more concerned about putting him away for a few years and letting thousands of players suffer a loss of 330 million dollars, that's pretty sad. Who cares, DOJ? You got Bitar. And there's still Cereus to make an example of.

Ye sure, Isai and stars ran the business legit, hahah they bought a ***** bank to process cashouts to US players...

We could only hope, but the unfortunate thing here is the DOJ probably feels they have to set an example here for everyone else. Regardless of how PS was run or if they had the cash on hand to pay all of the players. In their eyes He broke the law and must be punished.

Pessimism=not allowed

Did you even read the full sentence?

Yes i did, still not a legitimate business.

There, I took out "legit" so you can stop being a semantics whore about it.

question for DF/lawyers/non trolls:

I feel like there is lots of speculation about isai/jailtime and the "deal" that gets ftp players their money back. While I believe DF has stated multiple times that the criminal and civil cases are not related and others have implied that their is likely some under the table criminal case "deals" being made in conjunction with the civil deal, can someone please set the record "straight?"

I realize this won't stop the speculation, but I feel like I shouldn't be confused at this point.

GBT tried to buy it for 80 million, and have the ROW players earn the money back like a deposit bonus. DOJ made it clear from day one that they wanted all the players paid back in full. When GBT issued a news release that the deal failed, they mention PS, more then likely to deflect bad PR.

That's not true. People learned of the PS deal before GBT's press release, plus, how are you saved the bad PR if you talk about a competitor coming to save you from the bad deal you couldn't go through either way.

Regardless, I still think that a bad deal is better than no deal. And I find that the problem with what GBT offered wasn't what they offered per se, but how their offer would influence people's play on their website. What they offered could perhaps work if everyone was patient enough to start grinding again on the site. But if most people thought that GBT was being ridiculous and boycotted the site, then the new FTP would have suffered from liquidity problems and probably couldn't take off the ground either way.

Where exactly did I say that Caesars in anyway has influence on the DOJ??? That is far from true and has never been said. You should probably read more carefully before stating things that are untrue.

Poorly worded bad argument based on bad reading comprehension.

"We couldn't come to terms."



There is still hope. Maybe the property men will go on strike.

DF's source is from the DOJ (imo).

I used the word "implying" as in that what I understood you were saying behind the lines. But reading it again, you re right, I misread it. My apologies.

If what you re saying instead is that what PS is asking from the DOJ is something that the DOJ cannot give because DOJ's inability to offer that and because Caesar's got plenty of political influence at the state level which would not allow PS to enter the US market, I still think it's a bad argument, because if that's the case, this is something that PS should have incorporated into their thinking before they went into the negotiations. This isn't something that they wouldn't know and discover during negotiations, nor is it in the same dimension(judicial system versus political system) nor is it a good assumption to think that PS would be so negligent in its thinking to discount Caesar's political influence.

So, in other words, PS knew of this factors and still thought it was a good idea to enter those negotiations with the DOJ and those negotiations seemed to go a long way apparently being a few steps before completion. Ergo, the deal is probably in risk due to other factors and not this one.

I think now it's a good idea to elaborate on those blah blah blah reasons!

Sorry, the only people who can truly set the record straight are not talking, or at least are not talking on the record in any independently reliable way.

About all that can be said for certain is that there is nothing in law that prevents a comprehensive settlement of both the criminal and civil charges, nor anything that prevents the settlement of one and the litigation (or independent settlement) of the other.

The one thing that does seem pretty certain is that the deal to forfeit FTP assets to the DOJ in anticipation of a sale to a third party (thus facilitating repayment of players) is NOT linked to any resolution of the criminal charges regarding FTP directors Bitar and Burtnick. I believe this is a reliable conclusion a) because DiamondFlush has reported it and she is very careful about reliability and b) because of the statements made by Bitar and the prosecutor in connection with his return to the US.

Everything else is speculation or reports from sources whose reliability is unknown.

Skallagrim

I don t remember hearing PS discussing it, but whatever. The point i wanted to make is PS didn t cause the GBT deal to fall thru. GBT never offered a worthwild deal to begin with. Making the ROW play poker to earn their money back is a joke. Not allowing the ROW access to their full balance to gamble with is a joke. Allowing US players full cash outs and not offering the same to the ROW players is a joke.

[
Corporations: yes. DOJ frequently settles criminal/civil cases with corporations.

People: it seems to be complicated. I think it can be done but it is kind of an ethics issue on how it is done. Could be wrong, but I don't think there is a clear cut answer. Also, if there were such an explicit agreement it could probably be found void as violating public policy and/or just plainly unenforceable.

The blah blah blah was just a bunch of nonsense. So much so that there is no reason to perpetuate the nonsense.

Is this what's supposedly holding back the deal? That the DOJ would prefer jail time for Isai (that he won't do) to getting players paid back + their own $300mil payday from the penalty?

Emphasis not added.
Bold emphasis added.

The government "can't" use the threat of forfeiture to induce a guilty plead, nor accept a forfeiture in return for lighter criminal punishment.

The real difficulty though, ignoring the criminal cases, is that the government "can't" accept a forfeiture without an admission to guilt sufficient to support the forfeiture.

If PS admits to that level of guilt (operating an illegal gambling business) they won't be able to acquire a gambling license in the US, so they might as well take their chances in court.

I agree the part where he states " We have all worked hard over the last 15 months to preserve Full Tilt’s assets and potential in order to provide for the repayment of all players, and that continues to be our top priority. It is as important as ever that we all do everything possible to make that happen and, hopefully our deal with Poker Stars will very soon make our goal a reality. My return to the US is part of this process"
has me confident that it has nothing to do with the sale !

So you feel that some FTP shareholder/boardmember (I forget which), who presumably in the know about this, is effectively making stuff up as to why it's not a done deal and telling his friends about it?

heres an idea that might help. It would prevent a mass withdraw on the day FTP2 opens.

ROW players: every 60 days they get 1/4 of their balance that they can gamble with but they can not cashout for 60 days at which time another 1/4 is unlocked with the same conditions. If you don t want to gamble, thats fine, wait the 60 days then cashout. So every 60 days you could cash out 1/4 of your balance

US players: They get 1/4 of their balance every 60 days at the sametime ROW to make it fair for all. And of course deduct phanton deposits from any balance.

players could chip dump but why take a chance on having your account closed and funds seized when you can wait 60 days.

No player to player transfers with restricted balances.