Poker News

According to a report from one of the most reliable sources of information regarding the ongoing Full Tilt Poker fiasco, poker professional Chris “Jesus” Ferguson could potentially be holding up the deal between the site and Groupe Bernard Tapie, a deal that may bring the beleaguered online site back online.

Subject: Poker, who has provided many of the details regarding the GBT/FTP deal, reports that Ferguson is allegedly holding up any further movement over the deal because of money that he put towards the site following “Black Friday.” According to S:P, the former World Champion accepted just under $60 million from Full Tilt since 2007, which he put into different bank accounts under the Pocket Kings, Ltd., umbrella. Although he withdrew and spent about $45 million of that money, what Ferguson is looking for is allegedly the remainder, $14.3 million, after a rather ill-advised move.

According to the S:P report, Ferguson allowed that $14.3 million to go back into the Full Tilt accounts to take care of expenditures by the company post-Black Friday. While allowing this money to go back to FTP, Ferguson allegedly felt that this “good will” gesture would put him at the front of the line as a potential owner under the revamped Full Tilt Poker, in whatever form. This, however, would prove to be wishful thinking.

Negotiations with the U. S. Department of Justice by Groupe Bernard Tapie have allegedly resulted in the federal authorities approving the deal for GBT to buy Full Tilt Poker, but with a caveat: that none of the current ownership of Full Tilt Poker be allowed to have even partial ownership of the company post-deal. This is the current hang up, according to S:P, and it could be some time before there is a compromise made.

Ferguson and his attorney, Ian Imrich, have requested an accounting of the Full Tilt books and, as of today, have not received this accounting. S:P reports that Ferguson and Imrich have threatened to file lawsuits to create a “constructive trust” (a trust set up by the court to benefit a party that has been wrongfully deprived of its rights in business dealings) and to file for injunctive relief against Full Tilt Poker. These actions would potentially delay the plans for Groupe Bernard Tapie to take the helm of the Full Tilt ship, delaying payment to potentially thousands of players around the world (U. S. players, under the deal with the government, would be paid by the Department of Justice).

Subject: Poker appropriately ends this discussion by stating, “(We) would like to make it clear that we have no reason to believe that the above threats (by Ferguson and his attorney) have in any way been successful in stalling or impeding the (GBT/FTP) deal.”

As expected, the backlash in the poker community has been fervent and, for the most part, entirely against Ferguson and his attorney. On the Two Plus Two forums, poster ‘Carthac’ stated, “I really want to react with a rational response to this, but what can be said of his actions besides of them being pure greed. This man not only shamed himself with FTP, put 100’s of millions of dollars of player money in jeopardy because of his extremely dishonest, greedy, and immoral actions, but now he wants to stand in the way of possibly recuperating and refunding his customers because of personal monetary issues from his former company? What complete scum of the earth.”

On the Pocket Fives forum, poster ‘maxtinder’ says, “Chris Ferguson should be extremely embarrassed that he plays poker,” while another poster, ‘emptypockets,’ writes in his post, “Just lost all respect for Jesus…no pun intended.”

This is just the latest is what has turned out to be a Shakespearian tragedy for what used to be the second largest online poker site in the industry. As of now, there are hopes that Groupe Bernard Tapie is still involved in the purchase of the assets of Full Tilt Poker, but each day that goes by without closure only incites the ire of the online poker community even more than it already has reached.

3 Comments

  1. andyg2001 says:

    The DOJ are not allowing those involved in management of Fulltilt to have shares in Fulltilt 2. But they have not stopped current shareholders who were not involved in management from having a passive minority holding.

  2. Nevada68 says:

    It’s back to the Brick and Mortar Casino’s for me and home games,—when you can’t trust people who were put at such a high regard like Chris Fergusson and Howard L.—–How can anyone trust any of these on line site’s,I know I won’t be playing at any of them anymore!!—Good Luck to all,—but we know luck doesn’t matter,—-Right!

  3. betterbetyet says:

    sob’s it is so sad that my money and other players money is tied up for so long this has and will allways leave me suspicious about online gaming and i have not deposited one penny since tyvm ftp,greed,greed,greed its shamefull and blatant disrespect.

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