It was on this date that the FBI and Department of Justice (DOJ) blocked the domains of sites PokerStars, Full Tilt and AbsolutePoker / UB (Cereus Network) on charges of bank fraud, money laundering and development of gambling illegal. Among the eleven names indicted in the case, were founders and CEOs of poker sites and persons related to payment processing.
The first response of the poker rooms was affected domains redirect their websites to Europeans, while trying to recover a settlement areas. With.
This happened days later with PokerStars and Full Tilt, which agreed to close its doors for the U.S. market. Already decided Cereus network sites risk, and continued to operate in the U.S. until May.
The biggest concern of players from around the world was not able to play again, but the situation of the money in their accounts. At this point, only PokerStars has been shown to resolve the problem, since he was the one who proved to fulfill the determination of regulatory agencies, keeping player funds separate accounts on the site. So, less than a month after the federal action, could pay more than $ 100 million to U.S. players.
The same can not be said about Full Tilt and the Cereus Network sites, which tried to continue their business as if nothing had happened. In an attempt to control the numerous requests, serves on both sites were limited, mainly on Cereus, which restricted withdrawals to $ 250 per week, that still have not been met.
In late May, ten sites were blocked by the DOJ. The best known of them, Doylesroom, also lost its greatest representative, Doyle Brunson, due to events that chose not to have his name attached to the site. Months later, the room ended its activities.
While PokerStars was recovering, even losing approximately 30% of its players and being forced to reduce their guaranteed prize pools of tournaments, Full Tilt sinking more and more, while the Cereus network fall into oblivion, losing 96% of his players after news that he had only $ 6 million in cash to pay the $ 54 million he owed. The FTP came to realize major events such as the Mini Series of Poker. Have your new live tournament series called Onyx Cup, never happened, because on June 29, its operating license was suspended by the Alderney Gambling Control Commission (AGCC). With this, the site only had permission to operate in France, but this license also was suspended shortly after. The AGCC then scheduled a hearing for September to decide the fate of Full Tilt.
Since then, Full Tilt was the subject of several scandals and lawsuits, even their greatest representative, Phil Ivey, who opened a lawsuit seeking $ 150 million for breach of contract and damage to his image. A few months later, Ivey dropped the lawsuit, alleging that Full Tilt has sought to repay their customers. Some U.S. players, feeling hurt, also triggered justice against FTP, and shortly afterwards the site's lawyers withdrew from the case, which was filed in January this year. Unsatisfied, the same players have opened a new process this week, this time against Howard Lederer and Chris Ferguson.
News of the second largest online poker room in the world were not good. It turned out that the FTP site the money credited to players' accounts, even if they have never been paid deposits, causing a massive leak of U.S. $ 128 million.
At the same time, began to emerge the first rumors about a group of investors interested in buying Full Tilt. Later, it was revealed that these were the Groupe Bernard Tapie, which among other companies, Adidas has saved from bankruptcy.
In September came the long-awaited hearing the AGCC on Full Tilt license. After a few sessions and delays, the AGCC decided that the operating licenses of FTP would definitely be repealed.
That did not stop the negotiations with Groupe Bernard Tapie. In November, the group announced that it has reached an agreement with the DOJ, in which the assets of Full Tilt would be transferred to the DOJ, only to be sold for $ 80 million for the GBT.
The Full Tilt Poker finally returning to the market in November 2012 by the hand of that PokerStars bought Asala poker, but players continuma Americans waiting to receive their money.
Already the sites Absolute Poker and UB, Cereus Network are delivered to the flies. The site is still active, although only bots and naive and unsuspecting players play at their desks. The latest news is that the network had been in October 2011, when Kahnawake Gaming Commission (KGCC), the agency that regulates the activities of the network, announced that the company owns the Cereus initiated the sale process of the network, but so far nothing more was said about it.
But you did not read it all just to remember the darkest events in the history of online poker. You also want to know how they are now accused by the U.S. Justice Department.
To date, few arrests have been made and agreements were negotiated. John Campos and Chad Elie, bankers indicted in the case were arrested and after pleading guilty, paid bail of $ 25,000 and $ 250,000, respectively. They ordered a judicial agreement to reduce their sentences but awaiting the judge's position.
Bradley Franzen, a payment processing company, pleaded not guilty to nine charges, including bank fraud and money laundering, for which he paid a bail of $ 200,000. He later pleaded guilty and made a cooperation agreement, and now awaits sentencing.
Ira Rubin, also related to processing payments, was arrested in April 2011 and pleaded guilty to three of the nine charges on your behalf. He is awaiting trial, which is scheduled for May 17 this year, and can take between 18 and 24 months in prison.
Besides these, the only one directly linked to poker sites who was arrested is Brent Beckley, Director of Payments Absolute Poker. He pleaded guilty to deceiving banks and awaiting trial for April 19. Beckley can be sentenced up to one year in prison.
As for Isai Scheinberg (founder of PokerStars), Ray Bitar (Full Tilt CEO) and the other defendants, there is no information available.