In a move that has rocked the poker world, professional poker player Clonie Gowen filed a multi-faceted lawsuit on November 14th against her alleged former employer, Full Tilt Poker, and the individuals and corporations that are part of the Full Tilt operation. While rumors and accusations swirled this weekend regarding the status of this lawsuit, Gowen and her relationship with Full Tilt Poker, Poker News Daily has waited until there was adequate information regarding the case. On Tuesday, Poker News Daily obtained the full 20 page complaint that Gowen has filed in Nevada District Court.
In this complaint, Gowen not only names Tiltware, Inc. – the developers of the Full Tilt Poker software – as a defendant, but also names both Full Tilt Poker sites (their “dot com” and “dot net” arrangements), Pocket Kings Ltd., Kolyma Corporation (foreign corporations set up allegedly after the start of Full Tilt Poker), and each individual member of what is called “Team Full Tilt,” which includes Ray Bitar, Howard Lederer, Andy Bloch, Phil Ivey, Chris Ferguson, John Juanda, Phil Gordon, Erick Lindgren, Erik Seidel, Jennifer Harman (identified by Harman-Traniello), Mike Matusow, Allen Cunningham, Gus Hansen and Patrik Antonius (his name is misspelled on court documents as “Antonious”).
Gowen’s attorneys, Howard & Howard, Attorneys PC of Las Vegas, state in their complaint five areas that Gowen is seeking relief from. They allege that there was a breach of contract, a breach of fiduciary duty, a breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing, unjust enrichment, and fraud. A full look at the complaint spells out where Gowen feels she has been victimized by the Full Tilt corporation as a whole.
The suit is based on facts stated by Gowen that she was hired by Full Tilt to be one of their “celebrity players” and that her compensation for that job was a one percent ownership of the company and any extended parts thereof. From 2004 until November 11th of this year (when Gowen was informed that she was being released by Full Tilt), she played under the “Team Full Tilt” banner, wore their logos and promoted the site at poker tournaments around the world, pointing out in court documents that she did not receive any buy ins for tournaments or other financial backing from the company for that time other than her 1% ownership. She also alleges that there were undisclosed regular payments to the members of Team Full Tilt that started in May 2007 and that she was denied the same compensation.
Gowen’s legal representation backs up her claims by stating that there was a verbal contract offered by Bitar in 2004 and that, in November of 2007, Lederer offered her $250,000 for her “past performance” with the company, which Gowen refused. Her refusal was based, according to the complaint, that she was due much more as per her 1% ownership. Her attorneys have also stated that, after 2007, Gowen was “ostracized” from the group and, in effect, pushed out of the organization. Gowen is seeking her one percent of the entirety of the Full Tilt operation, which her attorneys have estimated at $40 million, with the additional possibility of punitive damages adding on to that amount.
Jim Kohl, one of the attorneys in charge of the complaint, said to Poker News Daily, “We are confident the allegations will be proven at trial. Clonie has been wrongly denied her compensation and, after we go through the process of discovery, we feel the court will find in our favor.” Attempts to contact officials at Tiltware in Los Angeles failed, as the phone number was out of service.
Poker News Daily will continue to monitor the case and update it appropriately.