In a way, it almost marks the end of what has been a sordid tale that will go down in the annals of poker’s history, for good or for ill. On Tuesday, former World Series of Poker Championship Event winner and Full Tilt Poker board member Chris Ferguson and the attorneys for the U. S. government entered into an agreement in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York to end the civil suit brought against him regarding the operation of the beleaguered online poker site until 2011.
An Order of Settlement document was presented to Judge Kimba Wood on Wednesday that will put to a close Ferguson’s involvement in the Full Tilt Poker scandal, at least from a legal sense. Ian Imrich, who not only represented Ferguson in the civil case but was also the lead attorney for Full Tilt Poker before its demise, filed the Order of Settlement in the SDNY after negotiations wore on for well over a month. While Ferguson’s case was supposed to have begun last month, an extension was granted by Judge Wood to allow the parties more time to discuss a potential settlement. Although the settlement has been agreed to by the significant players in the case, all that was missing as of yesterday was Judge Wood’s signature, which was expected to be a formality.
Facing civil litigation that would have put him on the hook for over $40 million, the settlement for Ferguson is much lower than that. According to court documents, Ferguson will sacrifice approximately $14 million of dividends that he stated he left in the Full Tilt coffers following its shutdown in the United States in April 2011 to pay back players. In addition to that money, Ferguson will also pay a $2.35 million fine, which will also go towards payback of U. S. players.
Other than that, the settlement for Ferguson looks much like the ones that his fellow civil complainants, Howard Lederer and Rafe Furst, reached with the federal government. Ferguson states in the documents that he believed that Full Tilt Poker was a “legitimate business” and that he was unaware of any “wrongful activity” in the company, including that it was unable to meet the financial commitments that it had with players who had deposited money on the site.
Those financial commitments will be met within the next 30 days following Judge Wood’s acceptance of the agreement.
There is one particularly intriguing segment of the proposed settlement between Ferguson and the feds. Tucked away in one paragraph of the settlement is a statement from Ferguson that maintains that “poker does not constitute gambling.” This is noteworthy because it is not included in the settlements for Lederer and Furst and perhaps was the “sticking point” that caused the settlement negotiations to be extended.
While the settlement of the three civil litigants in the “Black Friday” case marks an end to that segment of the prosecution, there are a few loose ends to still tie up, for the federal government at least. Still awaiting trial in the New York courts is former Full Tilt Poker Chief Executive Officer Ray Bitar. Bitar, who surrendered to federal authorities last July, has been under house arrest since that time in California. There has been no word on when that trial will begin or whether there are discussions that will also produce a settlement of the case are ongoing.
As to the criminal charges that were brought against eleven men from the April 2011 “Black Friday” indictments, there are only three that remain at large. PokerStars’ former owner Isai Scheinberg, former payment director Paul Tate and Scott Tom (the owner of Absolute Poker) have yet to be apprehended or surrender to federal authorities, but that doesn’t appear to be occurring soon. All three men are believed to be outside of the United States, limiting what U. S. authorities can do in pushing for their appearance in court.
The other eight men – for the most part, the payment processors behind the “Big Three” online poker sites PokerStars, Full Tilt and the CEREUS Network – have all reached plea deals with federal prosecutors. In those cases, fines and prison time ranging up to three years have been handed out, with all the defendants pleading guilty to various violations of federal gambling regulations.
With the end of the civil cases against Ferguson, Lederer and Furst, the plague that was “Black Friday” is beginning to reach its end, at least from a legal standpoint. Where the poker world goes from there is still a story that is left to be told.
