PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker Retain Counsel

Following online poker’s Black Friday one week ago, it took almost no time at all for several of the defendants to retain legal counsel. PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker, as well as two accused payment processors, have selected the attorneys and law firms that will represent them as they fight the United States Department of Justice.

On Wednesday, Preet Bharara, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced an agreement with PokerStars and Full Tilt in which the online poker rooms will regain the use of their .com domain names in order to facilitate cashouts for U.S. citizens. In exchange, the poker rooms may no longer allow Americans to play at their virtual tables, although both PokerStars and Full Tilt had already barred U.S. action on Friday.

The published agreement with PokerStars showed that the world’s largest online poker room has retained the law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, and specifically attorneys David Zornow, John Carroll, and Anand Raman.

Skadden was named as one of Law360’s top five White Collar Firms of 2010. Last year, the firm successfully defended Bristol-Myers Squibb Chief Financial Officer Frederick Schiff in a securities fraud case and reached a favorable settlement for Dell in an SEC investigation into its relationship with Intel.

Zornow is the head of Skadden’s litigation/controversy practices and was formerly a Federal prosecutor in United States v. Oliver L. North. Perhaps most importantly, he was an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, the same office that issued the indictments against PokerStars, Full Tilt, and the rest of the 11 defendants.

Carroll also worked for the Southern District of New York as chief of the Securities and Commodities Fraud Task Force.

Raman is the co-leader of Skadden’s Consumer Financial Services Litigation and Enforcement practice and has extensive experience with cases before the U.S. Department of Justice.

According to Am Law Daily, PokerStars has also retained the law firm Debevoise & Plimpton. The firm’s litigation chair, Mary Jo White, who did not respond to Am Law’s request for comment, is the former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.

Barry Boss, the Washington, D.C. office managing partner for Cozen O’Connor, is listed as Full Tilt Poker’s counsel. Boss is a former assistant Federal public defender and currently teaches at George Washington University Law School. He has successfully defended corporations and individuals in cases involving money laundering, fraud, and gambling.

Am Law Daily has also reported that Full Tilt founder Ray Bitar has retained Jeff Ifrah and his firm Ifrah Law. In solidifying his reputation as a top white collar criminal defense lawyer, Ifrah has had a wide ranging career that has spanned being a JAG officer in the U.S. Army to a partner at Greenberg Traurig.

Chad Elie, one of the payment processors named in the indictment, has retained William Cowden of Washington, DC-based Mallon & McCool for his defense. Cowden, a partner in the firm, was formerly a Federal prosecutor with the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia and a Senior Trial Attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice. He has experience, as one might expect, with cases involving bank fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering.

Bradley Frazen, an alleged intermediary between the poker rooms and payment processors, has hired Sam Schmidt of Joseph Potashnik & Associates to serve as his representation according to Am Law Daily. Schmidt has defended a wide array of clients, including those accused of murder, white collar crimes, and drug offenses.

Schmidt’s most famous case is arguably one in which he defended Wadih el-Hage, a former al-Qaeda member supposedly involved in the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya. He is currently serving a life sentence in a supermax prison in Colorado.

According to PokerScout.com, the cash game traffic of all three sites named in the indictment has dropped precipitously. PokerStars, perhaps the best positioned globally, has seen its cash game traffic decrease 24% since Black Friday. Full Tilt, its closest rival, is down 48%, and the Cereus Network has seen its traffic slashed 53% even though it is still letting current U.S. customers play.