Former Full Tilt Poker board member Chris Ferguson and the US government will have to wait a while longer for their date in court after the latter were granted an extension to prepare a reply to Ferguson’s motion to dismiss. CardPlayer reports that a court document filed Tuesday explains the two sides have been “engaged in extensive settlement conversations” over the past few weeks since Ferguson filed the motion last year.
In light of the conversations between the two sides, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Preet Bharara, asked Judge Kimba M Wood to grant the extension and she obliged, with the new date set at Feb. 19.
Ferguson’s case is the latest to come to court after both Howard Lederer and Rafe Furst settled their respective cases with the Department of Justice (DOJ). Lederer ended up forfeiting over $1.25million in bank accounts as well as several luxury items in addition to a number of properties in the Las Vegas area.
Furst, meanwhile, settled his case a few weeks earlier than Lederer and the amount he handed over is unclear as he was reported to have waived funds in a number of bank accounts seized by the DOJ. The amount the DOJ sought was over $11m in “alleged criminal proceeds” and how much of this they recovered remains clouded. Furst was also made to hand over an extra $150k.
Today’s events mean that Ferguson’s original date to file a reply of Feb. 18 will see a significant extension and we might not hear what he has to pay until at least March.
PokerStars, a company that originally stood accused alongside FTP before buying it, are going from strength-and-strength and their France Poker Series (FPS) brand today sees the Deauville Main Event get underway. It has a buy-in of €1,100 and kicks off 10 days of poker in the Northern French city that will culminate in the €5,300 Main Event that starts on Feb. 3. The winner of that will look to emulate the likes of Lucien Cohen, Jake Cody and last year’s winner Vadizm Kursevich with the prize likely to top €850k.
London’s Hippodrome Casino, in which Stars have a stake, has announced its first large-scale poker event with the Winter Classic next month. The event, running Feb. 7 thru 8, is a NLHE £250+£25 tournament with a guaranteed £25,000 price pool and a maximum of 200 competitors. Stars, set to open their own Poker Deck at the venue later in the year, have taken a back seat as far as this event is concerned. The company told PokerFuse that they are “not really involved with the Winter Classic, apart from the fact we’ll be helping out by providing a tournament director, some equipment and assist in the running of the event.”
