PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker Named in Seizure Indictments

A New York Circuit Judge has ruled in favor of Costigan Media's Motion to Intervene and gain access to information related to seizure warrants issued in June by the US Attorney's Office in the Southern District of New York.  The warrants resulted in the freezing of nearly $40 million in funds from payment processors doing business with online poker's largest.

The Honorable Judge Laura Taylor Swain initial ruling ordered the unsealing of the seizure warrant but allowed for several redacted pages, citing an ongoing investigation.

Following the indictment of Account Service's Douglas Rennick two weeks ago, Judge Swain requested the US Attorneys Office provide further information explaining why the redacted copy should remain post-indictment. 

Judge Swain determined that some of the redacted copy should now be revealed.   The unredacted copy relates specifically to Douglas Rennick and all his business dealings and both PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker are also named in the seizure warrants as is a company "associated" with Rennick called Alenis.

Costigan Media is the parent company of Gambling911.com.   The decision is precedent setting for both the online gambling sector and electronic media.

A copy of the less redacted Agent Conte affidavits will be linked here momentarily as they were just released.

Click here to see the full file PDF.

Requires opening in picture viewer. Click here for the TIF file.

Submitted by C Costigan on Mon, 08/17/2009 - 10:54
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Comments

Re: PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker Named in Seizure Indictments

Fri, 04/15/2011 - 19:59 — Guest
ONLINE POKER PLAYERS BEWARE!!!! Full Tilt Poker, Why are you keeping soooo quiet about the New York Indictment that has virtually shut you down in the US. It has been 5 hours since the announcement and deposit requests are just processing and processing. I guess it's time to back to the live gambling since the big 3 (Party Poker, Absolute Poker and Poker Stars), have all been idicted and they payment processors accounts have been frozen. SIGH, why do the good things always get taken down. Whatever happened to cruising the strip in great muscle cars. America, America my you-know-what...

Full Tilt Fraud - sent bad withdrawal check

Sat, 08/29/2009 - 07:45 — Guest
I withdrew money from my Full Tilt poker account and received a check from HMD Inc several days later. I went to deposit the check into my bank account, but it was declined by my bank due to insufficient funds behind the check. Full Tilt sent me a bad check. I have emailed them a dozen times over the past week and have not received any response. Clearly Full Tilt poker has scammed me. Otherwise, they would acknowledge the mix up. Are there others out there who have experienced the same thing?

Re: Full Tilt Fraud - sent bad withdrawal check

Sat, 04/16/2011 - 19:29 — Guest
Yeah I won money from Full Tilt but they just keep giving me the run around. It has been two months now and all they can say is send more info. What a joke they are!

I had the same issue.

Thu, 09/03/2009 - 03:23 — Guest
I had the same issue. FullTilt did eventually credit my account plus $300 for my trouble.

fulltilt not responding to emails

Wed, 09/02/2009 - 02:03 — Guest
Yup. Fulltilt is not responding to my emails and their check to me for a lousy $150 has bounced for NSF. I got a check from HMD, INC from Garden Grove. What a joke.

Thank God for G911

Wed, 08/19/2009 - 08:59 — Guest
for having brass balls and not being afraid to do the right thing. nuff said!

Innocent until proven guilty

Mon, 08/17/2009 - 22:52 — Guest
Why is everyone so quick to believe this guy is guilty of bank fraud? First off there is no way you can process 500 million in checks and not know what they are for. You'd think after the first 100 million the bank might do a more detailed due diligence if a only a general business description was given in the beginning? The wires also were coming in by the millions from Cyprus (a know online gambling haven). What else could the bank possibly think those checks were for? Also when it comes to fraud there has to be a harm. In this case the banks likely made millions in fees. Uh, how were they hurt? In turn the banks would have paid hundreds in thousands in taxes to the government. Uh, how was the government hurt? Also fraud requires a proper due diligence in order for you to be a victim. Given the large volume and the fact this went on for years, the banks obviously did zero due diligence if they truly had no idea what the checks really were for (which is IMPOSSIBLE that did not know). This fraud charge is a distraction because the SDNY is petrified to take on a poker case. They trumped up these charges and brilliantly spun it in the press. Anybody who has judged this person without thinking about everything I just wrote should be ashamed. All he did was put money back into the hands of American citizens who essentially were playing a video game in the comforts of their homes. Should someone doing that go to jail? The banks were all in on it and are now playing dumb to cover their own hides. They should also be ashamed.

U Guys are the best!

Mon, 08/17/2009 - 16:17 — Guest
What a job you're doing for the industry lifting morale with these wins. Never before have I seen a judge act so favorable towards us. I'm impressed as are a few other operators here in CR.