U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara filed a motion this morning to amend its civil complaint against Full Tilt Poker, claiming the owners defrauded players out of more than $300 million and calling Full Tilt a 'global Ponzi scheme.'

Full Tilt Poker Free Games

According to the Wall Street Journal, the amendment names Howard Lederer, Chris 'Jesus' Ferguson, Rafe Furst and Ray Bitar as the principals in a scheme that paid out $444 million to themselves and the other owners of Full Tilt Poker at least partially through supposedly segregated player deposits.

Amaya Gaming Group Inc. And privately held Oldford Group Limited, the parent company of Rational Group Ltd., the world’s largest poker business and owner and operator of the PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker brands,announced today they have entered into a definitive agreement (the “Agreement”) for the Corporation to acquire 100% of the issued and outstanding shares of Oldford Group in an. PokerStars had been in talks with Wynn Resorts to join forces, while Full Tilt Poker had been negotiating their own online-land-based poker partnership with Fertitta Interactive (owners of Station Casinos). Should this have happened, 2 mega-companies would have emerged, even further distancing themselves from any other industry competition.

Bharara: Full Tilt is Ponzi Scheme

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'Full Tilt was not a legitimate poker company, but a global Ponzi scheme,' said Bharara in the statement.

Bhahara also said Full Tilt 'cheated and abused its own players to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars' and that 'insiders lined their own pockets with funds picked from the pockets of their most loyal customers while blithely lying to both players and the public alike about the safety and security of the money deposited with the company.'

Further to the complaint, the DOJ is also seeking new penalties for each defendant totaling $41 million for Bitar, $42 million for Lederer, $25 million for Ferguson and $12 million for Furst, related to the percentage of their ownership in the company when the fraud was committed.

It is also asking for forfeiture of all funds paid to each individual from Full Tilt Poker.

Rafe Furst: Added to the DOJ defendant list.

From the amended complaint filed by Bhahara:

'The Amended Complaint alleges that one of the Poker Companies, Full Tilt Poker, not only engaged in the operation of an unlawful gambling business, bank fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering as alleged in the Complaint, but also defrauded its poker players by misrepresenting to players that funds deposited into their online player accounts were secure and segregated from operating funds, while at the same time using player funds to pay out hundreds of millions of dollars to Full Tilt Poker owners.

'Full Tilt Poker was able to accomplish this massive fraud, in part, because it illegally conducted business in the United States but maintained its personnel, operations, assets, and accounts principally overseas.

'The Amended Complaint further alleges that, in or about the summer of 2010, Full Tilt Poker payment processing channels were so disrupted that the company faced increasing difficulty attempting to collect funds from players in the United States.

'Rather than disclose this fact, Full Tilt Poker simply credited players' online gambling accounts with money that had never actually been collected from the players' bank accounts. Full Tilt Poker allowed players to gamble with -- and lose to other players -- this phantom money that Full Tilt Poker never actually collected or possessed.

'When other players won these phantom funds, their accounts were credited with money that Full Tilt Poker did not actually possess, but now nevertheless owed to these players.

'As a result, Full Tilt Poker soon developed a massive shortfall between the money owed to United States players and the money actually collected from United States players, with Full Tilt Poker having credited approximately $130 million in phantom money to U.S. players online accounts that was never actually collected from players' bank accounts.

'Full Tilt Poker never disclosed this shortfall to the public.

'The Amended Complaint further alleges that, as of March 31, 2011, Full Tilt Poker owed approximately $390 million to players around the world, including approximately $150 million owed to players in the United States.

'At that time Full Tilt Poker had only approximately $60 million on deposit in its bank accounts. As of the filing of this Amended Complaint, Full Tilt Poker still owes players over $300 million.

'The Amended Complaint alleges that, meanwhile, from approximately April 2007 until April 2011, Full Tilt Poker, and its Board of Directors, Bitar, Howard Lederer (“Lederer”), Christopher Ferguson, a/k/a “Jesus” (“Ferguson”), and Rafael Furst (“Furst”), all owners of Full Tilt Poker, distributed approximately $443,860,529.89 to themselves and other owners of the company.

Full Tilt Poker Net

'Payments to the Full Tilt Poker owners stopped only after April 15, 2011.'

No representatives for any of the parties could be reached for comment by the Wall Street Journal.

Full Tilt Poker is currently in the processs of completing its hearing with the Alderney Gambling Control Commission about the reinstatement of its operating license.

No statement has been released by either party regarding the proceeedings over the last two days in London.

Almost a month ago, our sister site PokerTube was the first poker news site to reveal Amaya’s next big move: a merger between Full Tilt and PokerStars. FT confirmed the move days later sending an e-mail to all of their customers in which support explained the future plans. Basically they said, starting in April, the ‘Full Tilt brand will run on the PokerStars platform.’ But what does that really mean? What will happen to all those Full Tilt accounts? And what about FT promotions, rewards, and its unique design and avatars? Will they just disappear? Well, not really. Most of it will still be available, only bigger and hopefully better in terms of liquidity, cash tables, tourneys, and oh yes, prize pools. Still not sure what to believe? Don’t worry, like always, we’ve got you covered and we’re pretty sure that if you read the next lines, all will be clearly explained.

A Single Cross-Platform User Account

First thing first: what will happen to your Full Tilt username? Well, after April 1, 2016, like the liquidity and traffic, the FT account will ‘merge’ with your PS account and based on those details, a new, universal, cross-platform account will be created. Universal? Yes, you will be able to access it across all Amaya platforms - Full Tilt, PokerStars, BetStars and StarsDuel.

If you have a linked PS username in your FT cashier, the details from your PS account will be taken into consideration at the time of the merger. And yes, that means your FT user will become obsolete. If you haven’t played on PS before, then the FT details will be center-stage so you will be able to play on Stars using your FT user. Don’t worry though, at least your FT fancy avatar will remain the same no matter the situation.

Ok, but what if I have cash on the FT account? Well, all assets - cash, coins, tournament dollars, tournament tickets, cash game ticket,s and even your edge rewards - will be transferred to your new account. So if you have on PS $100 and on FT $50, your new account will be credited with $150.

As for the other assets:

• Real money ring game tickets will be converted to real dollars and transferred to your new account.
• Tournament dollars will be transferred to your T-Money balance while your tournament tickets will be converted to T$.
• FT Coins will be converted into StarsCoins at a rate of 7 StarsCoins per 1 Coin.
• FT Points will be converted into StarCoins at a rate of 1 StarCoin per 2.5 FTPs.
• Bonuses and pending Edge Rewards will also be converted into real dollars based on progress.

PokerStars VIP Club Across All Platforms

At the time of the upgrade, the Edge Rewards Program will become extinct and replaced by PokerStars’ own VIP Club. Don’t sweat though: this doesn’t mean your efforts so far have been in vain. The FT Rewards Program will also be converted into the equivalent VIP Club Status based on your 30-day rolling FTP average. If you earned 181,818 FTP or more in 2015, your new account will be automatically set to the Supernova Status.

What about PS VIP Club? What if you played on both PS and FT, would the reward programs also merge? In a way, yes. If you have a VIP Club Status on PS and plenty of activity on FT, your new account will have whichever status is higher after FT conversion. So if you’re Chrome on PS and after the FTP conversion, you’re Gold, that means you will start the new merger era with the Gold Status.

Shared Player Pool… Same Experience?

Now, the one million dollar question for those who love the Full Tilt design: will the FT platform be still available after the merger? Actually yes, but we do not know to what extent just yet. There are definitely some different opinions out there regarding what a poker skin actually means and how the FT software will change after the merger.

What we do know is this: starting from April 1, 2016, there will be a shared player pool just like on the European networks. iPoker,for example, is a very familiar network that has many skins and all share the same player pool. All the skins however have a very similar design; the only real differences are in colour and brand. Will Amaya have the same approach? That would mean taking the current PS software, making some small cosmetic changes and basically applying it to FT.

This is unlikely to happen, however, or at least that’s what PokerStars’ Director of Poker Communications, Lee Jones said during a Twitch stream last month. Jones was asked if the merger would turn FT into a PS skin and he actually said no. He explained that it will be much more than that. And the FAQ Full Tilt released last month confirms his position:

The Deal Jackpot would also mean FT could have exclusive games, only available on its software. This isn’t entirely unusual since some iPoker skins have exclusive tournaments, Sit & Go’s, and even cash tables. Some FT games won’t be available immediately but that could be subject to change after the merger.

Last but definitely not least, the MTT schedule on FT will change dramatically starting from April 1, 2016. Most will probably be eliminated and replaced by the PS tournaments so expect a major shift in the MTT section. Some value tournaments could continue to run though as part of their exclusive offer for the new Full Tilt.

For more information about the merger, you can always check the Full Tilt’s FAQ section here or you can always use the comments section below and ask us. We will do our best to answer you in a timely manner. Good luck at the tables!