With the current world series of poker airing on television and reaching more viewers than ever before it has been brought to the attention of the poker world that the gaming site Full tilt poker and two of its main pro players have been caught in a supposed ponzi scheme. According to federal prosecutors the poker website has basically stolen at least $390 million dollars from its players. Sources state that since the begining of April 2007 the poker company has paid its owners and directors somewhere in the neighborhood of $440 million dollars, with the majority of the cash being deposited in overseas accounts.
Those so far named in the lawsuit are one Howard Lederer and Chris Ferguson, both poker professionals. The poker giant according to the US attorney generals office in Manhattan New York says it has cheated and used its own players to selfishly fill their own pockets with their most valued customers money. They have blatantly lied to not only the players but to also the public about the safety of the poker site and the security of the players money deposited there. It is also beleived that the poker site owes its US players more than $150 million dollars a number that will probably rise in the future.
This latest suit comes on the heals of the amended civil suit that was part of a filing to recover almost $3 billion dollars for two other poker sites along with Full tilt poker being one of them. For those not in the know, on April 15th three major poker sites were shut down. This day is commonly known as Black Friday. All three sites have been charged with bank fraud, money laundering, and gambeling law violations. Since the shutdowns in April, two of the sites have refunded what it has owed to players however one site has not be able to refund due to insufficient funds.