$184m
repayment plan for Full Tilts non-US players
PokerStars has unveiled details of a $184m
repayment plan for Full Tilts non-US players and confirmed that
FullTiltPoker.com will re-open for business in the first week of November.
PokerStars reached an agreement with the US Department of Justice in July to
obtain the assets of Full Tilt and as part of the deal agreed to pay the $184m
outstanding to Full Tilts customers outside the USA.
The
repayment programme will see former Full Tilt Poker players in France, Spain,
Denmark, Estonia and Belgium repaid through the locally-licensed PokerStars
platform. Players will pair a PokerStars account with their Full
Tilt account which will enable them to withdraw or use their balances on the
licensed PokerStars site. The situation for Italian players is less clear after
PokerStars revealed that is still in discussions with Italian regulators
regarding the withdrawal procedure. It expects to release more information
as soon as possible. Players in all other jurisdictions (including the UK and Ireland but
excluding the US) will have full access to their accounts when
www.FullTiltPoker.com re-opens for business during the opening week of
November.
PokerStars has
been working with regulators in all relevant jurisdictions to ensure that
repayment is conducted in strict compliance with local regulatory requirements
that ensure the security of player accounts and confirmation of the rightful
ownership of those accounts, read a statement from the Isle of Man based
site.
As part of the DoJ agreement, PokerStars also paid the U.S.
Government USD$547 million, which will in part be used to reimburse former Full
Tilt Poker customers in the United States through a remission process to be
administered by the U.S. Government.
The return of funds is part of a
$731m settlement secured by US district attorney Preet Bharara, America's
leading white-collar crime prosecutor, who had targeted Full Tilt and rival
site Pokerstars, which dominated the multibillion-dollar global poker market
Bharara has alleged that the sites engaged in bank fraud and money
laundering on an industrial scale to get around rules barring companies from
processing payments for online gambling activities. His intervention led to
further revelations of millions of dollars missing from player accounts at Full
Tilt.
Under the terms of a three-way settlement, the Full Tilt assets
will pass to Isle of Man-based Pokerstars, which forfeits $547m to the US
authorities and has pledged to reimburse $184m owed by Full Tilt to its players
outside the US.
The settlement has ended civil proceedings against the
two sites but Bharara is still pursuing a parallel criminal indictment against
11 individuals, including Pokerstars founder Isai Scheinberg, who remains at
large. He has promised to step down as a Pokerstars director after the Full
Tilt takeover.
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