David Caruso of The Associated Press reported last week that full tilt poker, blocked from operating in the U.S. last spring on “Black Friday” as part of an online gambling crackdown, was “not a legitimate poker company, but a global Ponzi scheme,” federal prosecutors said.
The popular website illegally raided player accounts to fund operations and make lavish payments to its owners, Justice Department lawyers said in a revised civil lawsuit filed in New York. Over four years the company is accused of using $444 million to pay board members including well-known pros Chris Ferguson and Howard Lederer.
The poker site had promised its players that their accounts were protected and wouldn’t be touched. But authorities say that, as of March, the company had only $60 million left in its bank accounts to cover the $390 million it owed to players. It routinely mingled player money with its own finances and took cash from some customers to pay others.
