14 DAY TRIAL // According to U.S. law enforcement officials, one of the largest gambling websites in the world turns out to be a Ponzi scheme in which its board stole millions from unsuspecting players.
Prett Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, is handling a complaint in which the directors of Full Tilt Poker were using player funds to pay themselves and investors.
While players believed that their profits can materialize in real earnings at any time, the company's owners basically stole more than $440 million (€300 million) from them since April 2007.
Raymond Bitar, Howard Lederer,Christopher Ferguson and Rafael Furst are accused by the state of misrepresenting funds and committing fraud. A complaint was filed against them in April, this year, and two other gambling companies which are believed to be involved in money laundring and illegal wagering.
"As the proposed Amended Complaint describes in detail, Full Tilt was not a legitimate poker company, but a global Ponzi scheme. As a result of our enforcement actions this alleged self-dealing scheme came to light. Not only did the firm orchestrate a massive fraud against the U.S. banking system, as previously alleged, Full Tilt also cheated and abused its own players to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars.
“As described, Full Tilt insiders lined their own pockets with funds picked from the pockets of their most loyal customers while blithely lying to both players and the public alike about the safety and security of the money deposited with the company," revealed Bharara in an official statement.
On the Full Tilt Poker official website a message alerts players that their services are momentarily unavailable.
Company representatives released a statement on August 30 saying “While any deal of this nature is necessarily complex given the current regulatory environment, our players should know that Full Tilt Poker is fully committed to paying them back in full and restoring confidence in our operations.”
It remains to see what will be done, but it's very unlikely that the players will ever regain trust in their activities even if they do manage to somehow pay them back [via].