New Full Tilt suit from RICO plaintiffs
Howard Lederer and Chris Ferguson accused of conversion.
The four plaintiffs who filed a RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) lawsuit against members of ‘Team Full Tilt’ last year have returned with a class action accusing Tiltware board members Howard Lederer and Chris Ferguson of conversion and of exercising “unlawful dominion and control” over player funds.
The new case has, like its predecessor, been brought by Nick Hammer, Robin Hougdahl, Steve Segal and Todd Terry. Known as Segal et al v Lederer et al, it has been brought in the Nevada District Court.
According to Nevada news source Vegas Inc., the core of the allegations levelled in this suit focus on the amendments to the Black Friday civil suit in September, nearly three months after the original Segal et al v Bitar et al case.
The plaintiffs claim the actions of Lederer and Ferguson have (in part) denied players access to some US$150m in funds, however they do not bring the same allegations against Tiltware CEO Ray Bitar and board member Rafe Furst, both of whom were named in September’s amended civil complaint as having received eight-figure distributions.
The wording of the new lawsuit alleges that “Defendants approved distributions and loans to the other owners of Full Tilt Poker from funds directly traceable to the player accounts,” and that “The distributions and loans to Lederer, Ferguson and the other Full Tilt Poker owners were from intermingled funds containing monies from the player accounts.”
Judge Leonard B Sand, presiding over last June’s suit, found in favour of the Full Tilt players named as defendants, including Lederer, Ferguson and Phil Ivey. Ivey had – in the intervening period – brought and subsequently dismissed his own suit against Tiltware. A further defendant, Phil Gordon, had obtained dismissal from the suit last year.
Full Tilt Poker is still in the midst of takeover discussions with French consortium Groupe Bernard Tapie, which could see the brand return for the first time since FTP’s operating licences were suspended by the Alderney Gambling Control Commission (AGCC) last June. The operator’s Swiss-facing subsidiary, Orinic Ltd, applied to the AGCC for a new licence late last month.