| It's somehow the government's fault that the owners of FT were paying themselves literally hundreds of millions of dollars out of player accounts? Pokerstars was subject to the same laws, yet they had fully segregated accounts and could pay everyone 100% of their account balance. ----------------------------------------- According to a balance sheet prepared by Full Tilt Poker, as of March 31, 2011, Full Tilt Poker owed players from around the world over approximately $390,695,788 but had only approximately $59,579,413 in its bank accounts. Full Tilt Poker relied on new deposits from players to ensure its ability to fund withdrawals to players’ accounts. Rather than protect player funds as promised, Full Tilt Poker distributed hundreds of millions of dollars to its owners… Defendant Lederer personally received at least approximately $42 million, including approximately $37,856,010.92 in ownership distributions and at least $4 million in “profit sharing” payments… Defendant Ferguson was allocated approximately $85,161,305.88 in distributions. Tiltware records reflect that approximately $25 million of this sum was actually transferred to Ferguson’s personal accounts, with the remaining balance characterized as “owed” to Ferguson. ----------------------------------------- Should internet gambling be illegal? Probably not. Was it illegal when FT was operating? Definitely. Is that somehow an excuse to engage in massive fraud? |