The rest of their interview with Daniel can be found here.

Speaking of UB, Joe Sebok has an update on his blog regarding another delay in releasing hand histories from superusers on UB.

Whew, crazy couple of days. Thanks everyone for all the support. You guys are amazing and I can’t thank you enough for the love. For the skeptical, I just ask that you give the situation some more time…

Now, let’s get to the release of the hand histories. It’s a two-part process and here is the rundown:

First off, UB is currently working to catch up on all past historical requests, so be aware of that if you already have a request in. In truth though, it can’t hurt to send another email request just to lock it up. You can do so at pokersecurity@ultimatebet.com. Please include all pertinent information in your email: your name, address, and your user name.

Now, once your request has been processed you should expect a summary version of the information first. It’ll be a spreadsheet that details every hand you specifically played against each of the identified 117 cheating accounts. This will be a complete record of all those hands so that you can go through and verify the refund amounts yourselves. This will act as a summary as we want to get something out to you while the actual detailed hand histories are processed, which obviously takes longer.

Some hand histories will go out quickly, as they won’t contain as many hands as others. Some players have played a ridiculous amount of hands however and that will take a longer amount of time to process. Again, this is the reason for the first, summary hand breakdown of the information, as that gets something in your hands that you can begin checking sooner.

Please be a little patient with getting this information out and back to you once you have requested it. I know you have all been waiting for quite a while, but this kind of project takes some time to run through.

Thanks to the KGC and UB for making this all happen. I am impressed to say the least.

Am also curious why any indictment in this case would be sealed.

I conducted the interview on Friday, Aug. 8, via telephone, and I must say that I was pleasantly surprised at Mr. Leggett’s willingness to answer my questions as he was able and be as honest as the corporate attorneys would allow. He has been reaching out to other media outlets lately, having done guest appearances on 2+2 and Pocket 5 podcasts, and I was happy to finally have a door opened and someone coming out to answer questions.

The full interview has been submitted to PokerWorks in a three-part series due to the length of the transcribed interview. The first article is up now, and the others will be posted in subsequent days.

Highlights of the interview included dispelling myths and rumors, speaking of the utmost confidence that the perpetrator(s) will be caught and prosecuted, and giving details about new security procedures and systems to prevent future improprieties.

A few excerpts:

In response to a question about how two companies, AP and UB, could be purchased without any knowledge of cheating going on at the highest levels:

“There definitely was due diligence done at the time of purchase… but this is a very large platform that we purchased. Unfortunately, during this due diligence process, we simply did not discover the code that was put on there…”

Regarding legal actions:

“We are pursuing many, many legal actions right now. I’m confident that a lot of it will become public in the very near future… I cannot confirm or deny anybody that is involved or not involved at this point. There’s nothing that would give me more personal satisfaction than to do that, but unfortunately, our situation is very complicated. But I have a ton of evidence – IP addresses, withdrawal information, transfer information, addresses, names – and I’m confident in my own mind that I know exactly what occurred… I’m very hopeful that we’re going to be receiving a very large sum of money as a result of our legal actions… I’m very committed to doing everything I can to make sure that enough information comes out about this, whether it be through our legal actions or whatever, to make sure that the poker community and the public at large are satisfied at the end of this.”

In response to an inquiry about Russ Hamilton receiving royalty payments from UB:

“Absolutely in no way does Russ Hamilton receive any compensation from us or have any role in this organization.”

Regarding the KGC assignment of independent investigation of Tokwiro:

“It was a surprise to me; I only learned about it the day before their public announcement… We welcome it with open arms. I think it’s great for the industry and for us personally.”

To clarify that all victims of the scandal have not been repaid:

“The first statement that we made on May 29th, all of those accounts that we had identified at that point and concluded were for sure involved in the cheating were immediately refunded… As I understand it, it is in the interest of everyone at the KGC, Frank, and us that those additional refunds are completed as soon as possible.”

Nat Arem, the rogue investigator who blew the top off the Absolute Poker scandal, has stepped in to assist with the UB investigation that never seems to end. And the most recent post on his blog, dated today, links some of the superuser accounts on UB to one of the site’s former owners, Russ Hamilton. Yep, that’s 1994 WSOP main event champion, Russ Hamilton. Supposedly, he no longer has a stake in the company, but there are conflicting reports as to his current involvement in UB business.

Here’s a brief excerpt from Arem’s blog:

But it showed that the registered address of at least some of the super user accounts belonged to Russ Hamilton, the former owner of UB.

I basically felt sick to my stomach. I talked to Russ on the phone a few times in the fall — brsavage got me in touch with him. We talked about how disgusting it was that this happened at AP. Russ expressed a strong opinion that he was going to do whatever it took to get things right and, at the time, I believed him that he was going to fight to get things at AP right. He even got me in touch with the guys at AP so I could go down there and meet with them on behalf of PokerNews and the community as a whole. This guy RAILED against the people at AP who were superusing.

He chose not to release any details:

After a lot of reflection and thought, I have decided to separate myself from the Ultimate Bet brand. I hope that everyone will respect my privacy, as I wish to not go into the decision in any great detail at this time. At this point in time I just believe that the things I’m trying to accomplish in my career are not in sync with the Ultimate Bet brand.

There are many interesting levels to this. Eric chose to sign on with UB as the online poker site just barely came clean about its superuser cheating scandal, and it came just after Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy signed a deal with UB. Evidently, Eric took a lot of crap from the forums for his decision, and whether that had anything to do with his withdrawal from the sponsorship remains to be told. But whatever made him end the deal must have been of a significant nature because he did it even before the main event of the WSOP.

Oh, and for those who thought the UB statement concluded the superuser scandal, it is by no means concluded. UB was careful to send out their statement of resolution the day before the WSOP began this summer, but what was not widely reported was another statement posted on the website less than a week later. It quietly notes that their oh-so-thorough investigation that took many months was not so thorough and numerous accounts involved in the scandal may have been missed.

Click below for the hush-hush sweep-it-under-the-rug release:

June 5, 2008 – As announced previously, UltimateBet began the process of issuing refunds to affected players on May 29, 2008. Since then, we have continued to investigate additional accounts and data surrounding the unfair play. We have also received inquiries from our customers for a few accounts that we have included in our investigation.

We are confident that we have uncovered the majority of the usernames involved in the fraud and processed the corresponding refunds. However, we are currently analyzing data for additional usernames that appear to have suspicious activity. If we determine that these usernames were in fact part of the scheme, we will refund the net losses incurred by any customers who played against them.

We expect to have the investigation concluded by June 30, 2008.