To understand all the silence from them or at least hear 20% truth 80% bs.

Also win.

Well in hindsight you should laugh that people were talking about going public in 2006. Given how things ended up there was zero chance of that happening then or ever. You can't just take a couple excel spreadsheets and say "we go public now".

The fact that the talk was back then to go public but nothing that any responsible business would have done in preparation is fairly damning. Seems to me those in the know knew what they had been doing would not hold up to any real scrutiny, there was really no chance of going public.

That alone would have ended the companies existence like Black Friday did.

Lol what are you talking about? How was thinking about going public in 2006, or around that time assuming the UIGEA didnt get passed, something to laugh at? Without the UIGEA PartyPoker would still be more than likely in the US and they are public.

FTP was a perfectly healthy, profitable, and rapidly growing company by all accounts from its inception up until about late 2009- 2010 it would appear. Going public was obviously a viable option that the UIGEA crushed.

I think the point is the prep process of becoming a public company would have either a) made them put financial processes and controls in place that would have prevented the company's demise or b) put a spotlight on all of the poor processes, caused players to pull their deposits and potentially caused a "run on the bank"

I am as curious as the next guy, but watching Lederer for three and a half hours - that sounds just awful.

Is there anyone here who can tell a lazy slob like me which parts of the Lederer Files are actually worth watching?

i believe howard showed balls and integrity in resolving the immense issues that he very well could have walked away from.ithink he did have the players interest at heart and deserves much credit in doing what obviously no one else even tried to do,remember he was retired and he stepped up to fight the fight.the players are very fortuanate that he invested so much of his time ,heart and soul in getting the poker stars deal done for the players.he deserves a lot of credit and thanks for doing what he did. its very easy to trash him when not looking at the whole picture.the other 22 or 23 owners owe him for saving them their assets ect..im just a regular joe poker player in california ,and do not know howard or any other invested people. good on you howard im impressed with your integrity.jimmy

I'm sure this is the very reaction wanted from the demographic Howard was trying reach. Tip of the hat to him, I suppose.

in my experience in operations and management his actions are almost unheard of re: taking responsibility and trying to fix the problem at hand . very extrodinary to say the least.99% of the populace would not have hung in there as he did.

wat? 99% of people wouldnt have put themselves in a situation where they pilfer money that wasnt theirs then placate the situation..okay clearly not 99% but more than 60...why would anyone ever give him kudos?

Good work.

The one omission I've seen is the fact that Bitar informed Lederer about the backlog on April 7th, personally, after neglecting to disclose that little factoid during the prior two days of Board meetings. That failure to disclose, at that late a date, should have been grounds for Bitar's immediate dismissal. It cost the BOD two crucial days of action while they were in Dublin. The failure to swiftly act against Bitar is damning of the BOD. It implies Bitar was working with their tacit approval.

What is also missing is the follow up to Howard's Cash on Hand Report (first mentioned in Part 2). Howard stated that this report was assembled monthly. Was it cooked?

Billman has contributed some outstanding observations to this thread, particularly Lederer's silence on the financial meltdown, which occurred on his watch as a Director, and attempts to focus the discussion towards his heroic efforts after he screwed up. Howard the leader of the BOD. Ferguson may have been the chair, but Lederal was the leader. He doesn't get to claim he didn't know. He backed, to the hilt, the guy who wrecked the company. Whether Lederer knew FTP was bleeding cash is irrelevant. He was supposed know. That was his job.

My last observation brings a bit of pop culture into the discussion. As it pertains to Lindgren, Ivy, Dwan. All these obstructors who are being used to distract blame. Their various perceived transgressions were dwarfed by the gaping hole in the balance sheet. A hole that doomed the company. Who has seen Oliver Stone's JFK? Anybody read Jim Garrison's book -- On the Trail of the Assassins -- off of which Stone's movie was partially based? Anybody remember Stone's CIA spook (Donald Sutherland's character), who was helping Kevin Costner (Garrison)? Well, in the book, the Sutherland character was actually a CIA plant whose role was to gather intel on Garrison's investigation and plant disinformation that would lead the investigation astray.

Well, that's what Lederer is trying to do here. He's spreading disinformation (or simply irrelevant information) to spread the blame and take attention away from the 1+ year period leading up to Black Friday rather and, instead, focused it upon the 1+ year following Black Friday. When, really, the only questions are how did ~$300 million of player deposits disappear and why weren't their checks-n-balances in place to ensure transparency?

Right on, bump86. I hope DF gets into that part of the story, as it really is the part that counts when it comes to pointing the dirty finger.

That's because they would have been fired.

The owners weren't stupid. More involvement in the day to day activities would expose them to prosecution by the DOJ.

That's why no one wanted on the board, why no one wanted to dig into the finances, and why they went out of their way to not be involved in the day to day operations.

They could argue that their only role was marketing and building the business. It was Bitar, who was responsible for for the day to day operations.

Howard and the others aren't going to say that. Any communication that would show their involvement or intentional lack of involvement would have been used as evidence against them.

You may think they were stupid or are lying but it appears their strategy worked. None of them are in jail and most got off with no civil penalties.

The only thing they didn't count on was Bitar and the finance guy's mismanagement of the company. It appears to me that Bitar took advantage of the BOD knowing they would never really examine the books because it would increase their liability.

Those of you who now see Lederer in a different light and think he did everything he could, please remember:

He did not say a single word for more than a year.
That's plenty of time to make up a credible story that makes him look like a hero ...

Lost SOME respect?

He never had any respect for him, and he recently stated in a video that he'd have no problem if someone hit Howard with a baseball bat.

You know, they should get all the shareholders in one remove and interview them together. I know it will not happen, but just think about it

Initially I read that as get all shareholdsers in one interview and remove them together. From life. Harsh but fair.