Class action suit brought against Full Tilt
Raymond Bitar, Nelson Burtnick and 13 Team Full Tilt pros named in case brought on behalf of US players.
Four plaintiffs – including professional poker player and former lawyer Todd Terry – have brought a class action lawsuit against Full Tilt Poker on behalf of “a nation-wide class of Full Tilt account holders residing in the United States.”
The suit names as defendants Raymond Bitar and Nelson Burtnick – co-founders of the company, who were both named in the Black Friday indictments – as well as various businesses and corporations tied to the company, such as Vantage Ltd (named in the Alderney Gambling Control Commission’s statement accompanying its suspension of Full Tilt Poker’s (FTP) licences last week, as exclusively revealed by eGaming Review.
Also named are 13 members of ‘Team Full Tilt’, all alleged to have been “at all or some relevant time(s)…a shareholder and director of, and/or a participant in, Full Tilt and/or one or more Full Tilt companies.” These individuals include Howard Lederer, Phil Ivey, and former World Series of Poker Main Event champion Chris Ferguson. The suit also names “1 to 100 John Does”, the identities of whom “are currently unknown to plaintiffs.”
Lederer is one of those also named in a breach of lawsuit brought by Cycalona “Clonie” Gowen, a former Team Full Tilt member, which was reopened last month. Along with Ferguson, Lederer stepped down from the board of lobby group the Poker Players Alliance in May.
Last week saw Ivey drop his lawsuit against the company, and the class action lawsuit explains that “Ivey is said to hold at least a 5% stake in the Full Tilt venture.”
Following last week’s decision by the AGCC, Terry tweeted on Wednesday: “Kudos to the AGCC for finally stepping in and stopping the preferential treatment being given to non-US customers by the bankrupt FTP.”
Terry, and the other three plaintiffs, are all US citizens who have played on Full Tilt Poker in the past. Within the lawsuit they claim they have been “denied access to [their accounts] and the funds and assets therein,” since 15 April (Black Friday), when the company was subject to US Department of Justice indictments and the freezing of numerous bank accounts.
Since that date, FTP maintains that at least one voluntarily frozen Bank of Ireland account has been unfrozen following a green light from US authorities, but the DoJ has yet to unfreeze any of those accounts named in the initial indictments.
Last week reports emerged that FTP was set for investment from Europe, while the AGCC revealed earlier this morning that it is “is in discussions, at an early stage, with its licensees trading as Full Tilt Poker and a third party concerning the prospective refinancing of Full Tilt Poker.”
However, during this weekend and again this morning Pokernews founder Antanas “Tony G” Guoga tweeted: “The deal on the table is to sell what they can and let the rest go busto [sic]. Somebody will pick this up and Howard [Lederer] will be a new part owner.”
This morning Guoga added that: “I am getting some very important news from FTP from inside the company and will give details [on Twitter]. Facts within has it that FTP is about to roll over this week, Irish lawyers now involved demanding Pocket Kings pay up or declare bankruptcy”.
More news about FTP’s French operation is also expected today, with regulator ARJEL set to hold a meeting this afternoon “to study the responses of [Full Tilt’s French licence-holder] Rekop Limited.”
ARJEL also revealed that it had “Given notice to Rekop Limited to generate new certificates of the bank managing its French business.”