the other threads are (obviously) getting a bit out of control, and i'd like to answer what i can here to give people a clearer picture of the ftp situation.

In late april (25th i think?) i went to ireland because friends of mine were debating buying ftp. I was pretty adamant that i didn't want to be included in any nda, and that ftp didn't really have a choice except to trust me. I say that because i had enormous bracelet bets that would've more than doubled my net worth (counting equity on the 2 in 3yrs bets), and i got 2nd in a 1500nl. not to imply that the guy who won had bad morals or anything (he seemed nice), but its likely that i could've paid him off if i wanted to be a scumbag- and a bunch of those bets were against ftp owners, so they really shouldn't have had a choice except to trust my judgement. however much to my dismay i was included on my friends nda without being personally liable. normally nda's aren't enforceable, but seeing as i was paid a bunch by ftp/ member of team ftp etc. it wasn't fair for me to risk a huge amount of my friends $$ on this (way more than i could hope to ever cover from poker). obviously if this was just my own $$ i would've gambled it up, fought any potential lawsuit (probably won) and felt better about it. but the thought of grinding 1$/2$ for the next 800 years didn't sound very fun.

For the last 4 months i've been constantly bothered by the elephant in the room, and obviously if i addressed some issues while not addressing the most important (pertaining to the elephant) it'd come off pretty scummy and make people question ftp even more/ be bad for players. however now that the doj has outted that elephant, i think theres just about nothing i won't be able to answer (except stuff in the doj release and thats easy enough to find).

as far as i know there was 1 extremely bad decision made (the right decision would've been to stop processing to us players while still allowing them to play on the site), and a slew of terrible decisions made trying to avoid owning up to the 1st bad decision. What should've been an annoying problem after a few weeks, turned into a ****ty problem, then a really ****ty problem, and then a gaping hole capable of killing the company. Even after april 15th there were many poor decisions made, but the good news is that as far as i know (and i try to check everything i can from ftp about 18 different ways) for the last 2 weeks its been managed pretty transparently and well. before that it was in talks with an investor for about 2 months so there wasn't much opportunity for mismanagement, and as far as i can tell (again i tried to vet this a bit), there wasn't much.

if ftp doesn't pay i'll pay back everything i was paid. i dunno the best way to do this but it'll be a very transparent process.

i currently owe ftp $$ that i'll be paying back (in addition to the other $$ ill be giving) either to the players or a liquidator (if they go bust) or to any person who's buying ftp (and paying all the players- if they stiff some this $$ will go to those players). I almost paid ftp this $$ after black friday, and i'm really happy i didn't because i think the players deserve it. obviously if given good reason (deal which i believe is likely and they need operating costs for an extra week or w/e) i may give this to ftp- basically i'll do w/ it w/e i think is best for the players- this may not be quite as transparent but i'll try (only wouldn't be if i thought it wasn't in players best interests).

gonna have this thread locked and mods move any questions they feel are appropriate that i'll answer. feel free to put me on the spot/ ask anything u want- just trying to avoid needing to answer the same question 20 times. hopefully some other people from ftp will join me in this thread

also i'll be doing a few interviews in the next few days about all this (since now the only stuff i can't say the doj has said) and i'll link those here or something.



MOD EDIT: THIS IS OP'S ORIGINAL POST IN THE LOCKED/STICKIED THREAD, IT HAS BEEN CROSSPOSTED HERE FOR EVERYONE TO READ PRIOR TO ASKING QUESTIONS.

tom edit: the situation is very ****ty, but its not completely hopeless. ftp was not a ponzi scheme, it was an insanely profitable company that made a ridiculous decision and then a host of other ridiculous decisions trying to avoid owning up to the 1st mistake. Theres still hope, although we shouldn't need to be talking about ***** hope right now obviously. also if it does go bust (which is seeming more likely by the day unfortunately), there are still a bunch of assets (software, iou's that are hard to cashin, im sure some other stuff im not thinking of), and its likely people would get some amount of cents on the dollar. if i had to guess id say 15>x>40, but i'm no expert in that field.

hey ask questions here to have em moved to the other thread where me/ hopefully other ppl who were affiliated w/ ftp will answer. I'll still try to respond some to the other threads and try to make sure this is a transparent/unbiased thing.

Who was the potential investor? How much was the offer?

What was the reason for doing it? Thinking they never would get caught or because they dont care about other peoples money?

What do you make of the Justice departments accusation that FTP was a Ponzi Scheme for quite a long time?

What's the deposit minimum for a Swiss bank account?

which member of team full tilt bought junglemans account balance? was it you?

Stupid/highly personal/inappropriate questions will be deleted, and probably infracted.

This is not a thread for meme/spam/stupidity.

without naming names do you expect any more members of team ftp to be implicated?

Odds on getting our FTP money back?

How would it happen if we did?

Did pros ever deposit on FTP or they just got $$$ in form of loans from their future or so called share?

Of the $440 million that was illegally paid to shareholders of FTP, in your opinion and best guess, how much of that do you think remains?

In your opinion, what are our odds of getting all our money back ?

What were the contents of your NDA?

Why did Jeff Ifrah and co quit?

Are any other red pros currently worried about facing legal action?

Is Patrik ok?


More serious question. Any idea what happened in the Alderney mon-tue meetings?

How long in to your contract with ftp were you when you realized the company was mismanaged?

Chances of seeing my money?

Do you have a clue where Lederer, Ferguson, Ivey etc are right now?

this is what i want to know. How much do the pro's play with their own money vs how much is loaned to them

How do you and Galfond plan to protect yourselves and the players whose funds are held to ensure that you're not being told someone has $10k on the site when they had $200 or nothing?

I ask because I have an amount of money on there that's very significant to me (that I'd be thrilled to get any % at this point) but you're really putting yourselves at risk announcing that you're basically giving away $2m.

Why are YOU the only FTP Pro talking an no one else is? Is the situation concerning all the pros, from Jennifer Harmon to Phil Gordon and down the line as dire as it seems? Surely they aren't gagged by a NDA?

What level of involvement did Team Full Tilt Pros (such as yourself) have in the day-to-day operations of FTP? What knowledge did you have of internal workings and were you ever consulted on business/operational decisions?

What about just limiting the above questions to Howard and Chris? What level of involvement did THEY have and what part in the daily operations of the $$-side of FTP did they take?

I'd be interested in a cliffnotes of what you suspected/thought/did since April 15th/before

Did you suspect for a while (before black friday) that there was a sense of "anything goes" ie: loans slushing etc moneywise among the top pro's (such as yourself) and management as there was a mentality of we are extremely profitable everything will be fine?

Do you think that after todays news we are more likely to get paid?