jazzaxe said:
Full Tilt owes me a lot of money. That being said, this justice department continues to astound me. The anti-online poker stance of the Gov. would be greatly enhanced by the publicity of the suit. If the boys were duped into taking the inflated salaries without knowledge of the fraud they might squeeze out of this.
Err, they ran the company. They are named specifically by the DoJ, so the DoJ evidently has something linking them to the situation at hand - there are other shareholders who haven't been mentioned, after all. There is no way they can possibly plead ignorance (well they could try, but it wouldn't work). Despite all the hate (some justified, some not) being thrown at the DoJ for their oppressive stance towards online poker, without their interference in this case Lederer, Bitar et al could have got away with the alleged crimes indefinitely, and that is really scary.
Anyway, there is no chance that FT survives this. The damage has been done regardless of whether criminal proceedings are initiated and regardless of the results of any civil/criminal proceedings. This isn't another UB-style situation where the masses were ignorant to the scam, this will go mainstream (if it hasn't already).
Looking optimistically at the situation for a moment, this whole situation appears to me like a giant neon sign advertising regulation of online poker in the US. Hopefully the government will see it the same way.
