U.S. GOVERNMENT TO OUTSOURCE F.T.P. PAY-OUTS

Wednesday August 15, 2012 : U.S. GOVERNMENT TO OUTSOURCE F.T.P. PAY-OUTS (Update)
 
Applications to organise payments have to be in by end August
 
Faced with the daunting task of organising US player payments following the Pokerstars-FTP deal, the US Department of Justice has perhaps wisely decided that this is not its area of expertise, and has invited suitably qualified companies to come forward and undertake the task – for a fee, of course.
 
In an employment opportunity notice on its website, the Department invites applications for an independent Claims Administrator to undertake the Full Tilt Poker payment to players process.
 
The notice reveals that there are some 1.3 million "potential US victims" and that the project involves account balances totalling $159 million…monies already  held through seizures and payments from Pokerstars in terms of the FTP acquisition deal.
 
Applicants must be appropriately qualified, and will have to furnish information on proposed fees, along with details of any previous relationships that could influence independence in processing remission payments.
 
The successful applicant will work with the DoJ's Southern District of New York and the Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section to “design and execute a process to solicit, receive and evaluate claims, and to process payments, for losses incurred by U.S. victims that are attributable to the fraud alleged. In so doing the Claims Administrator will obtain and evaluate information, such as financial transaction records, from claimants, and analyze information contained in user account records provided in database and other format by Full Tilt Poker.”
 
The outsourcing decision perhaps explains why the Department has yet to publicise more details on how it proposes to make whole the FTP players, who have been awaiting their funds for the past 16 months.