Well, it was a sealed indictment, which means that its was a closed proceeding and jurors would have been instructed not to discuss....

Figured, just seems nowadays it's pretty tough to keep anything huge like this a secret for that long.

Agree with what jefkve said re: confidentiality of grand jury proceedings and sealed indictment.

IMO, I don't think it was a complete blindside for the sites. The DOJ has been publicly proclaiming its stance regarding the illegality of online poker for quite some time.

The public disclosure regarding Neteller, Dik****/PartyGaming, Douglas Rennick, and Daniel Tzvetkoff was a huge tip off that the DOJ has been investigating the online poker sites and their payment processing methods for quite some time. Members of the poker media reported at least a year or so ago that individuals were being called to New York to appear before a grand jury in connection with operations of the Big Three sites.

Rennick entered into a plea agreement where he got 6 months' probation when he was allegedly processing $350 million for the online poker sites. The DOJ isn't going to give someone 6 months' probation for something like that unless that person is giving the DOJ something in return . . . It is reported that Tzvetkoff is now in witness protection somewhere on the east coast. Again, the DOJ isn't going to put a person under indictment in witness protection unless that person is giving the DOJ something in return.

I am not a lawyer (yet), but from a good decade of Law & Order, I believe violating the confidentiality of grand jury proceedings carries criminal penalties itself for contempt of court. If the release of information also obstructs an ongoing investigation, that could result in an obstruction of justice charge against the person (witness, juror, etc.) who released the information that is under seal.

"Rule 6(e) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure provide that the prosecutor, grand jurors, and the grand jury stenographer are prohibited from disclosing what happened before the grand jury, unless ordered to do so in a judicial proceeding. Secrecy was originally designed to protect the grand jurors from improper pressures. The modern justifications are to prevent the escape of people whose indictment may be contemplated, to ensure that the grand jury is free to deliberate without outside pressure, to prevent subornation of perjury or witness tampering prior to a subsequent trial, to encourage people with information about a crime to speak freely, and to protect the innocent accused from disclosure of the fact that he or she was under investigation."

This kind of stuff has been in news fairly recently with 1) Ken Starr 2) Reporters from San Fran who wrote Game of Shadows.

tldr: illegal to talk about grand juryments (as my colleague above already said)

I want you to understand that this man at the wheel is my attorney. He's not just some bum I found on this trip, man. He's a foreigner. I think he's probably Samoan. But doesn't matter though, does it? Are you prejudiced?

Great show this week as always guys, thanks.. Steve was pretty spot on.. tuesday i was able to request a cashout on stars and those funds hit my bank acct today, thursday morning.. Great responsiveness as usual from stars, A+

The Grand jury process seems to be a bit weird. I dont think we have that process here in Aus, where a jury decides whether someone should be indicted.

I would have thought here you get the evidence and judge signs a notice to attend court, or a warrent for your arrest. I dont think this goes through a jury ever.

We will have a royal commission into certain things like major corporate fraud or things like that, they then will determine the charges but this is always a panel of judges in my brief experience.

Anyway, obviously different countries have different things but seems weird that you would baiscally trial someone before they are arrested and then once they are arrested they have to be trial again for them to be found guilty. obviously the first one is just to see if an indictment is issued and has less emphisis on ensuring they are guilty right.

what a waste of taxpayer dollars in any event.

Oh and the other thing is John Wray mentioned that the vid would be on youtube the other day but I cant seem to find it. is it up yet does anyone know? I should check NVG i guess...but lazy...will go there now.

Ditto. Hope you guys can get this new guy Steve Day on more often! Definitely more better.

"As your attorney, I advise you to take a hit out of the little brown bottle in my shaving kit. You won't need much, just a tiny taste."

Thank you for this. I still can't find the video on Youtube. Does anybody have a link or estimated time for when it's going to be up? I'm dying to share the song with my poker playing friends.

Our apologies - we've had some serious technical difficulties. The test audience's eyes melted out of their heads from sheer awesomeness and we have to replace them all with cybernetic implants. I'll announce everywhere as soon as it's up on YouTube. Glad you're enjoying the song!

Um, you can hear it in the Pokercast. Download the mp3 from post 6 of this thread and jump to 2:17:05 or so.

I bet this guy never thought he would get so many views:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpY0QSGl5tU

anticipation is killing me...

This!

I am saving 0.99P by taping it with my 1980s cassette recorder off the pokercast (like I used to tape the charts).After recent events I dont trust internet sites but if you are ever in Glasgow I will compensate you with a half pint.

Steve D sounded human on the podcast (he normally sounds like a sinister cyborg) from a neutral point of view I was disappointed you did not ask his opinion as bacon as a stand alone competitor.

Great show Mike Adam Bunner cheers

Video's here...

You guys have outdone yourself this time. Ridiculously great.

So sick! Knew it was gonna be great, but crushed the guarantee imo!

Hilarious vid guys...NICE

Just finished listening to this episode. Excellent as always. Thanks to John and to Mike and Adam as well for the kind words. I can't say often enough what a privilege it is to work with such a talented team on The Micros.

I'd also like to acknowledge the huge roles John and Lee Przytula played in creating the Bluff cover. I can't even count all the emails that were exchanged and files that were transferred as we developed the cover.

Excellent tune, IMO.

I was one of those people last week who was looking around youtube and NVG for a link to the video cause I knew it would only make the song better.

hey guys great show as always. i thought putting the pokercast tournament password when bunner accounting that it's running was a good idea.

just my 2cents.