FULL TILT CIVIL CASE OBJECTIONS GROW


July 11,2012 : FULL TILT CIVIL CASE OBJECTIONS GROW (Update)
 
Jesus, a Swiss trust and Pokerstars the latest to request that case be dismissed
 
Yesterday's report that Howard Lederer and Rafe Furst had submitted motions for the dismissal of Black Friday civil claims against them initiated by the Department of Justice has been followed by reports that Full Tilt shareholder Christopher ‘Jesus" Ferguson and online poker operator Pokerstars have launched similar motions.
 
Telamonian Ajax Trust, a bank account in Switzerland associated with Black Friday defendant Rafe Furst and seized by the DoJ, has also filed a motion for dismissal of the DoJ civil case, on similar grounds.
 
The sudden spurt of action has probably been triggered by the latest deadline in the case, which fell due Monday.
 
Coincidentally, the Department of Justice launched its own motion for dismissal of a class action brought by FTP players and litigation launched earlier this year by Cardroom International.
 
The Pokerstars move is of particular interest, given the stream of recent reports covering its attempts to acquire FTP and the negotiations with American enforcement officialdom that this entails

The Pokerstars motion is probably the more complex of those launched this week, claiming the inapplicability of the Illegal Gambling Business Act, and the wire, bank fraud and money laundering statutes.
 
It also attacks the vague nature of the DoJ allegations against it, along with the American enforcement moves designed to force the company into forfeiting international assets as penalties, despite US recognition that the poker giant's operations elsewhere in the world were legal…a classical illustration of attempted jurisdictional over-reach.