For Full Tilt Poker, when it rains, it pours. One day after word leaked that the industry’s second largest online poker site was the subject of a grand jury investigation for money laundering, the Commonwealth of Kentucky has filed suit against its owners in the Franklin Circuit Court.
Kentucky Justice and Public Safety Cabinet Secretary J. Michael Brown, who represents the state in the ongoing squabble over the rights to 141 internet gambling domain names, serves as the plaintiff in the new case. A 14-page complaint filed on March 25th calls for the defendant, Pocket Kings (owners and operators of Full Tilt Poker), to refund the State “the amount of money lost between March 25, 2005 and September 25, 2009 by persons located within the borders of Kentucky.” In addition, the Commonwealth is seeking pre-judgment and post-judgment interest, attorney fees, and “such further relief as the Court deems just and proper.” No dollar amount is given and the case is numbered 10-CI-505.
Other internet gambling sites are targeted in the newest Kentucky case, which also names “unknown individuals and entities [that] have acted in concert in joint ventures to facilitate, host, operate, and profit from online gambling businesses.” A variety of domain names are spelled out, including those belonging to Absolute Poker, Bugsy’s Club, Cake Poker, Crazy Poker, DoylesRoom, Golden Palace, Microgaming, MySportsbook, Pitbull Poker, PlayersOnly, PokerHost, PokerStars, PokerTime, Red Star Poker, Reefer Poker, Sportsbook.com, True Poker, and WSEX. UltimateBet.com, not UB.com, is listed. Also misidentified is BodogLife.com, which appears instead of Bodog.com. Several USA-friendly sites including Carbon Poker, Power Poker, and Poker Nordica are not listed.
The complaint charges that Full Tilt Poker conducted business inside of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, solicited action from residents, maintained accounts belonging to individuals in Kentucky, collected rake, and had its software installed on computers inside its borders: “The Full Tilt Defendants have done, or have caused to be done, tortuous acts in the Commonwealth for which the Commonwealth has a substantial and compelling interest in exercising personal jurisdiction.”
Commonwealth attorneys charge that during oral arguments in front of the Kentucky Court of Appeals, the Interactive Gaming Council (IGC) revealed that 13,000 Kentucky residents play online poker. The same language charging Full Tilt Poker and Pocket Kings is repeated for the aforementioned Unknown Defendants. Unlike the rumored grand jury investigation involving Full Tilt, no members of its pro team are identified by name in the Kentucky filing. According to the Financial Times, Howard Lederer and Chris Ferguson are two of the subjects of the grand jury investigation.
Regarding the Financial Times story that appeared on Monday, a representative from Full Tilt Poker’s legal team told Poker News Daily, “We are not aware of any grand jury investigation of Tiltware or any related individual or entity and the company’s position is that it has done nothing wrong. We are not going to comment about a speculative grand jury investigation that we are not aware of and we have no idea what, if anything, they are investigating.”
The Kentucky statute invoked is 454.210, which covers personal jurisdiction of courts over nonresidents. The statute calls for a court’s ability to “exercise personal jurisdiction over a person or by an agent” in the case of tortuous injury, business transactions, warranty breaches, real property claims, telephone solicitations, and sexual intercourse, among other criteria.
Kentucky attorneys note that Pocket Kings has a registered office located at the “Embassy House, Herbert Park Lane, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4, Ireland.” Tiltware, Full Tilt’s software provider, was not mentioned. The court documents dub Pocket Kings and the Unknown Full Tilt Defendants “a series of shell companies.”
Meanwhile, the Kentucky Court of Appeals rubber-stamped the return of the case involving the seizure of 141 internet gambling domain names to the Kentucky Supreme Court, which has yet to take it up once again. Full Tilt’s domain name is in jeopardy of forfeiture, although the site has purportedly sought legal protection in a U.K. courtroom.