Preet Bharara has granted an extension to the respondents in an amended civil complaint taken out on September 20. eGR reports that Full Tilt Poker, those coming under the PokerStars umbrella, Absolute Poker and Chad Elie have all been given the further extension agreed shortly before the October 31 deadline.
The amended complaint seems to be the nail in the FTP coffin as it revealed that FTP was a “ponzi scheme” that owes the site’s players the best part of $300m. It added “FTP Insider Defendants” in the shape of Howard Lederer, Chris ‘Jesus’ Ferguson and Rafael ‘Rafe’ Furst while being filed at the same time as the AGCC hearing. The news comes at the end of a busy week for the companies indicted on Black Friday.
FTP is closer to a deal than we all are to Christmas. Groupe Bernard Tapie has reportedly had its bakery and appliances approved so that it can start the process of taking on the beleaguered firm. Players are excited that they may even get funds back and not simply be rewarded with a free complimentary FTP beret.
It was also the same week that the owners of Absolute Poker, Blanca Games, unveiled to the DoJ a plan to liquidate assets. According to the Kahnawake Gaming Commission the site has a plan in place under which they will pay players. Whether it was a cunning plan that Baldrick from Black Adder is unclear.
The extension will be scant consolation for the players that lost money as they’re still no closer to finding out when or if they’ll get all their money back from either Blanca Games, FTP or…the DoJ. That’s unless you’re in the Joe Brennan Jr camp and you’ve started to send offensive tweets to any poker player that’s on your list including yourself.
