Breaking - US Attorney’s Office: Full Tilt Poker a Giant Ponzi Scheme

The US Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York has called Full Tilt Poker a ponzi scheme.

The office indicted two of FTP’s co-founders on April 15, charging them with money laundering and bank fraud.   The company has since been shut down and has failed to pay back customers.

From Forbes:

Manhattan’s U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara claimed on Tuesday that Full Tilt Poker and its board of directors operated the company “as a massive Ponzi scheme against its own players.”

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan on Tuesday filed legal papers as part of a civil money laundering complaint that alleged Full Tilt Poker improperly used funds of online poker players to pay members of its board of directors, including famous poker players Howard Lederer and Christopher “Jesus” Ferguson, $440 million since April 2007.

It appears as if US authorites are now honing in on Full Tilt Poker's Board of Directors including big name poker pros like Chris Ferguson and Howard Lederer.

The Forbes article noted that "Full Tilt and board members Lederer and Ferguson, together with Full Tilt CEO Ray Bitar, defrauded poker players by not maintaining funds sufficient to repay players at the same time that Full Tilt  led players to believe that their funds on deposit were safe and available for withdrawal at any time."

This story is developing…

Chris Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher