It is possible that if the AGCC was proven to be incompetent, fraudulent or totally negligent that they could lose their white paper status.

But I totally agree with you that it looks like they were duped by FTP who used phoney accounting.

Those who say the bank accounts should have been checked have absolutely no sense of how the real world works.

Everything is done through audited and signed accounts.

If the accountants and the company conspire to cook the books there is little anyone can do except hold them accountable when the house of cards comes crashing down.

Just like a plane crash, the authorities often bring in new meassures in response to the problem.

Hopefully the regulators will require more stringent seperation and proof of funds going forward.

Thats the best we can hope for.

+1

No way any UK bank will give account balances to accountants auditing a company, absolutely no way a gaming industry regulator would be granted bank balance / transactional info either, not in the UK anyway!

Can the Nevada Gaming Commission make a call to a US bank for balances of say Caesars or Wynn??

Jeez, the NGC website could do with an overhaul.....looks older than I am

The AGCC rely on the same audits that Her Majesty's Customs and Excise (IRS to US) accepted for the payment of tax in the UK. These are prepared for FTP annually by Grant Thornton LLP, a 'big 6' accountant.

Those not understanding regulation seem to think the AGCC are receiving duplicate bank statements and have say 3 accountants dedicated to each of their 52 egaming licencees

The AGCC have been repeatedly BS'ed by FTP as to the liquidity of funds that were intercepted in the US - the DoJ stated this, as did the official AGCC report.

The Commissioner from AGCC handling the FTP hearings and TERMINATING FTP's licence was no doubt chosen for her experience in fraud...

not the best looking of birds but meh...Isabel Picornell Commissioner
Isabel Picornell is a certified fraud examiner with 20 years investigative research experience, specialising in forensic linguistics in a corporate intelligence context. Prior to moving to Alderney in 2001, she served as a Justice of the Peace in the UK and worked in local government. She is a Dame of the Order of Isabel la Catolica in recognition of services to Spain.

The AGCC are squeeky clean....nothing to see here, move along

FT did not lie!!! they stated that all players funds were held in a seperate account!

the fact that that account was owned by the DOJ was just a minor detail they left out! LOL

Money.

They may release those funds if the new owners agree to pay a fine to settle the civil case. The current owners cannot afford to pay the DOJ $150-200M if that is what the DOJ is after.

I really don't know how it works in the real world. And it is a gross oversimplification, but I, for instance, can go to my bank and get my account summary. Bring the copy to a notary officer so she can certify it etc. etc. It is somewhat different than my word/excel spreadsheet file that I put my finances in, don't you agree? We don't have to look far: how was Tapie able to prove he's got the funds? I don't think he showed DOJ, AGCC and FTP his "books" did he?

I don't wanna imply that AGCC are scumbags, thieves etc., I may not even know what "books" really means. All I really do is acknowledge that it wasn't able to (didn't have the means to??) regulate FTP efficiently.

Perhaps, it sounded like a rant, but at least it is NOT "******ed hate" - all I mentioned was the outdated poll, which at this point is at the least misleading.

What evidence do you have for this? They were paid 440m in just dividends in the last 4 years not to mention sponsorships or loans.

Mark Hateley was a massive coke head when he managed Hull City (I remember standing on the terraces watching him moaning at the rest of the team).

I bet he took the money! The ****.

The main reason there haven't been that many potential buyers is the uncertainty whether the new FTP can re-enter the US market once online poker is legalized. It's not too hard to figure out that if DOJ waives future objection, FTP can be sold to repay all players in full.

It's obvious that repaying players has become a priority for the DOJ. If this is aligned with the interests of other parties, we should be optimistic.

http://www.subjectpoker.com/2011/10/...ion-agreement/ sorry if posted already. doesnt really say much new except maybe this paragraph.
"Bernard Tapie, Laurent’s father and owner of GBT, said in an interview with Agence French Presse that his company was only willing to finance 5%-10% of the sale on its own. Mr. Dayanim insists that is not true at all. While there are outstanding issues that need to be resolved, not the least of which is an agreement with the US Department of Justice, he says that rumors that the Groupe will continue with the sale only by having additional investors come aboard with a majority interest are entirely false. Subject: Poker can confirm that the documents that we have seen suggest that GBT plans to buy the large majority of Full Tilt itself."

New story on the acquisition agreement :
http://www.subjectpoker.com/2011/10/...ion-agreement/

You're not serious with this post, are you?

Overall, looks like a good news.

Thx for the link does sound puuurtty good

Company officials haven't been charged yet.

They reported seized funds as assets; they had the "expectation they would be recovered". Not so easy to prove fraud here.

No, they reported seized funds as cash. GAAP definition of cash is liquid assets redeemable in 24 hours. It's pretty clear cut fraud.

Even if they reported them as 'assets.' You need to have a reasonable expectation of recovery and a dating of past due balances. Its not reasonable to expect recovery as time goes on for accounting proposes and prudent accounting would require a notation of the aging of the accounts receivables and the risk factors associated with collecting them. To not point this out is accounting fraud.

There are other GAAP violations as well. The PKs audit shows no sign of risk elements to PKs business - which was clearly omitted and also mentioned by the AGCC in their report. Given the seizures, the lack of player funds and the theft, these were left out. In addition, then you have the a lot of misrepresentation of facts to the AGCC on their monthly liquidity reporting from PK (or FTP) to the AGCC. These are at a minimum possible fraudulent acts.

The PK CFO has to go, as do many others, technically, no one has been convicted of anything, so RB could stay on a well. I wish that diamond had clarified what changes in management GBT was considering specifically...I find it darn wrong that any previous senior owners would be left in the new FTP. But its an interesting point that if CF is owed $60m, I can see how it would be hard not to do this....I noticed that the SB story mentioned forgiveness of debt in relation to owners receiving equity...jeez, given he is being accused of fraud and theft by the DOJ regardless of his role, it seems wrong that he would be allowed any equity in the new FTP and moreover, I cannot imagine the credibility damage this does to a new FTP. But once again, this is thankfully GBTs problem, not ours....

Its sounding optimistic that this is actually going to happen, but I think GBT is in for a hell of a shock that he isn't getting what he bargained for....but time will tell and lets see how much he has to put up...

I find it interesting that GBT is asking the DOJ to collect on the echecks. While I don't take issue with this, I cant see how the DOJ can allow it given their position on Poker and it would be a violation of the Safe Port act just as all other transactions would be such. Lets imtemize how this deal is looking right now:

1. GBT puts up $X
2. Previous owners invest or forgive debts from FTP to them for $X (this could be zero, but a release of claims has to happen)
2. DOJ allows GBT to collect $120M in echecks (not likely, but they can ask).
4. GBT offers equity to large players in exchange for debt (terms sounds bad, restricted stock for a period of time, you have to sell it back to the company at their version of Market Value! BAD DEAL!)
5. GBT gets other investors? $X?
6. GBT gets DOJ to agree to remission $X?
7. GBT gets DOJ to allow the fine to be paid over time with no upfront fine?
8. GBT gets DOJ to release all current frozen funds? Maybe ~$60M based on recent guesses.

So here is my take on the above...
(~$300-320M)--------Amount owed players
1. ~$60M--------release of frozen funds due to #8 (if lucky)
2. ~$25-50M----from owners (if lucky or at the min, forgiveness of debt)
3. ~$50M--------in remmission or some deal associated with remission (I don't know how
-----------------much money on top of the money seized on BF they would agree to remit or
-----------------how much they have gotten from the owners)
4.$0 or $120M-echecks - it binary since they will either be allowed or not (prob cant collect all due to closed accounts anyway)
5.$200M -------GBT to cover balance
6.$50-100M----GBT for addition investment into the business

~$200M (very rough as it depends on what they get above) min to start for GBT, less any money they might be allowed to get from echecks or investments by old owners.

Anyway you cut it, it looks like GBT is going to have to put up at least $200M (unless they can get either a big sum from echecks or they can get owners to put up money, but then they still need operating capital for the business) to buy this thing. If they get permission to go after the echecks, that's huge and probably guarantees the deal gets done, but seems highly unlikely...but I am just guessing...and I will also speculate that if he cannot get the number down to $150M that the deal will not happen....but that is totally my opinion. Also, its easy to see how important the discussions with the DOJ are and how many issues (some not even mentioned) will effect this deal (its not just about the fine, there are many other issues). And as mentioned in the SB, the owners need to approve (although, this seems hard to imagine that they wouldn't approve it).

Finally, new FTP should tell players they are going to segregate all funds....can we trust a company with a CEO accused of fraud and match fixing who is partnering with the old owners and being regulated by the same people who regulated it the last time?

I highly doubt that the big 4 are going to be having any ownership. That would be beyond ******ed. The others I don't really care that much about so long as they pay up. Their crimes are mostly just laziness and stupidity.

I agree it wouldnt make sense but when they say forgiving debt in exchange for equity you have to assume they mean Ferguson and the roughly $60MM he's owed.

I dont know....look at the subject poker interview...."For example, the Groupe is considering allowing some current owners of FTP to retain some ownership in the relaunched company in exchange for further investment or forgiveness of debt." That last part has to refer to the $60M the DOJ claimed FTP owed CF, but that is just a guess.

We'll see what the final outcome is. Maybe they can spin it somehow, but I just don't see how Ferguson has much leverage. He's looking at going down pretty hard if this falls apart imo.

Nice posts, and lots of speculation.

To be honest, I think the only way FTP and GBT et al. could make a go of it, is if the new entity was a public entity, and have the books open every year.

With CF, apparently he is owed $60M, but that could have been RB and HL saying to him, "you get the next $60M in player deposits".

It would be nice to have a look at the books...waiting for the American Greed show on FTP...

Scott has assured me that they are working around the clock and things are looking upwards. Hopefully by the 14th we will have our money

would be HOF