While the world waits for news of a different sort from one of the companies involved, the defendants in the U. S. Department of Justice “Black Friday” lawsuit have been granted another extension to respond to the government’s civil case.
Earlier this week, Judge Leonard Sand issued the latest extension in the case of the U. S. versus PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker. The September amendment to the original April 2011 civil action – which added in Howard Lederer, Chris “Jesus” Ferguson and Rafe Furst along with the owners of the three online poker sites and five payment processors – was previously supposed to have begun late last year but has been repeatedly delayed. Judge Sand’s latest extension pushes the time for those involved to respond to the civil action until May 14.
Following the release of the sealed indictments last year, there have been several extensions granted by Judge Sand. The first extension came in June 2011, allowing the defendants until September 30 to have their responses before the court. The DOJ issued their amended complaint on September 21 and also allowed for another extension to October due to the addition of Lederer, Ferguson and Furst to the roster of defendants. There have been three more extensions granted by Judge Sand prior to the latest one, which was supposed to have occurred on March 19.
The first defendants to go to trial are also battling the prosecution prior to the trial’s start next month. Chad Elie and John Campos, two of the alleged payment processors in the “Black Friday” indictments, are set for trial on April 9. Prior to the open of the trial, Elie’s attorneys have complained to the judge that the prosecution has employed some gamesmanship regarding evidence in the case.
According to a filing from Barry Berke and Dani James, the attorneys for Elie, they didn’t receive evidence from the prosecution regarding Daniel Tzvetkoff, the former Intabill owner who is expected to be a major star in the prosecution of all “Black Friday” cases. According to the filing, more than 90,000 documents from the government regarding the information provided to them by Tzvetkoff was dumped on the defense, giving them slightly more than two weeks to process the information.
At this time, there is no decision from the court regarding the filing from Elie’s attorneys.
This flurry of legal activity comes as the poker community waits with bated breath on any news regarding the ongoing Full Tilt Poker/Groupe Bernard Tapie courtship. After leaking the news last week that the deal for the sale of Full Tilt Poker to the investment company was “imminent,” there has been a dearth of any details from either side regarding the negotiations. This has set rumors ablaze that the proposed deal may be at risk of falling through.
One person that has been quite vocal on the proposed Full Tilt/Tapie deal is poker pro Daniel Negreanu. In a video blog recently, Negreanu opined that the deal will fall through and players around the world would lose whatever money they had with the site. “The players are not getting paid, it’s over,” Negreanu stated. “Tapie ain’t paying nobody. The deal is falling through. You lost your money. It’s just not going to happen.”
It is thought that worldwide players have as much as $300 million tied up on Full Tilt Poker, while U. S. players have around $150 million. Groupe Bernard Tapie is allegedly setting up financing to allow them to pay back the worldwide players once the deal goes down. U. S. players, on the other hand, are allegedly supposed to go through the U. S. Department of Justice for payment.
If the deal between Groupe Bernard Tapie and Full Tilt does fall through, the predictions by Negreanu may be all too accurate.