Full Tilt Poker Attorney Jeff Ifrah Opens Forum Account to Address Concerns

Written by:
C Costigan
Published on:
Aug/29/2011
Full Tilt Poker

One of the most prominent attorneys in the online gambling sector, Jeff Ifrah, has opened an account at the popular TwoPlusTwo.com posting forum in order to address concerns over his client Full Tilt Poker.  Ifrah has represented FTP for a number of years including the entire time period in which the US Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York were in the process of investigating the company in connection with alleged money laundering and bank fraud.

The hammer dropped on April 15 when the US Justice Department indicted two of Full Tilt Poker’s co-founders, forcing what was once the world’s second largest Internet poker venture out of the US market.  Since April 15, the company has failed to pay any of its thousands of US-based customers.  On June 29, its European licensing arm pulled the plug on all world operations.  Since that time, no customers have been paid by Full Tilt Poker. 

No offense to Jeff, we like the guy and he’s a good attorney but “instilling confidence in the online poker sector” is not exactly his cup of tea.  Immediately following the events of April 15th’s so-called “Black Friday”, Ifrah took to his block to essentially warn of an industry apocalypse.

205*128 Mad Month

Eat My Stack observed:

Despite 33 posts on his first day, however, he appears to have done little to allay fears among poker players that they will not be seeing their money again.  Amid a sea of generalities it emerged that Full Tilt CEO Ray Bitar remains in that post, but will probably be replaced should Full Tilt find a suitable investor, although this “will be driven by the investor and also by the regulator.”  Furthermore, it appears that unless the players are first paid, there can be no deal, and that no satisfactory deal has yet been proposed.

Indeed, Ifrah comes across as every bit the attorney.

“A lot of you have asked this question, I am in no position to answer what the owners will do in such an event nor answer what DOJ may be willing to do.”

I really don't know the answer as I am not involved in those proceedings.

I have answered this question three times. I thought maybe you read it and did not accept it.

Sorry, I don't know the answer.

This will be addressed I hope by the company's statement.(of which there have been a few dozen that turn out to be meaningless in the end)

Oh, there was one lone exception where Mr. Ifrah shed his lawyer clothing, if only for a brief moment. 

“No, I am not billing anyone for the last six or so hours that I have been trying to respond to questions.”

“Everything they’ve released to the public has been lies, lies, lies,” said one angry Full Tilt Poker customer, who maintained a few hundred dollars in his FTP account.  “You can only cry wolf so many times before all this bogus news falls on deaf ears.”

- Chris Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher

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