Signed, Sealed, and Undelivered
Just when the poker masses had all but given up on the latest rumor about PokerStars settling with the DOJ … In just a few sentences published early on Friday in Poker Player Newspaper, Wendeen Eolis threw fuel on smoldering embers of hope for those still dreaming of someday seeing monies attached to Full Tilt Poker.
And though some are beginning to doubt yet again after more than one full business day, Wendeen’s assertion that Stars had indeed settled with the DOJ, and that Full Tilt players will be paid back in full (and rather soon!) was enough to make this rather vocal skeptic do a double-take and re-think. I know Wendeen chooses her words carefully, and she wouldn’t move in like this without the goods unless she has gone completely off her rocker — a possibility she addresses in a follow-up PPN update.
So while the poker world awaits some semblance of official word … I‘m gathering up $60 to pay off a few possibly lost bets, as I’ve had probably a 170-degree POV flip — and now see a DOJ vs. Online Poker endgame that might-could actually include PokerStars resolving its civil matters at the same time Full Tilt and UB players get made whole!
Probably a good time to put out the disclaimer, I’m not a lawyer but … Even though I still see the notion of criminal indictee #1 buying his freedom by offering to take the assets of criminal indictee #3 off the government’s hands for a fire-sale price as rather ridiculous, here’s some recent DOJ-SDNY hand history that I believe supports what Wendeen might be suggesting:
- DOJ considers at least some Full Tilt players “victims”. This is a key designation, as it guarantees certain rights and is why poker players should be happy about the DOJ’s calling FTP a “ponzi scheme,” even if it does stretch the technical definition.
- DOJ, and Preet Bharara in particular, loves publicly paying back victims of ponzi crimes. And SDNY has been doing a lot of that lately, making them the good guys when putting your friends and associates in prison.
- DOJ, despite seizures and forfeiture actions, might be a little short on online poker cash. Preet himself acknowledges as much in the motion for dismissal of the Adam Webb lawsuit. (See page 2, where he says, “As an initial matter, the Government is not in possession of funds held by [Full Tilt and Absolute].”
Aha! See where this is heading? Well me neither exactly … I guess that’s why the DOJ has the “Complex Frauds Unit” still working this as an “ongoing investigation.”
But in the DOJ’s “fugitive disentitlement” motions the government could be providing a way to separate Isai Scheinberg from PokerStars-the-company so Stars civil and Scheinberg criminal matters could be handled independently — presumably with someone other than Isai and/or his son Mark at the PokerStars helm. But with that, I’m back to rather wild speculation — nothing I’m confident enough to make additional wagers on.
Because after all, it’s also possible that this is the US government’s final trap … and the flat-out leveling of the Stars/Tilt/UB online poker cabal might soon be complete.
