AGCC Incorrectly Reported Amount Seized from Full Tilt Poker
On Thursday, the Alderney Gambling Control Commission released a statement correcting a misreported number of funds seized from Full Tilt Poker by the Department of Justice from June 2007 through June 2011. The Commission reported on Sept. 29 — the day it revoked three of the four licenses belonging to Full Tilt Poker — that approximately $331 million was seized by the Department of Justice during that period. We've now learned that the number was incorrect.
Reprinted below is the AGCC's statement in full:
"AGCC wishes to correct and clarify an erroneous statement contained in the Commission tribunal’s published determination notice of the hearing into Full Tilt, which includes the statement: “the individual seizures made by the Department of Justice during the period June 28, 2007 to June 20, 2011, which amount to a cumulative total of approximately $331 million US Dollars.” The underlying evidence in the hearing clearly demonstrated that $331 million was the total of funds unavailable to Full Tilt, of which DOJ seizures formed only a part. The mis-statement is thus not of significance in the Commission’s assessment of the matter."
The AGCC tribunal stated that the $331 million figure came from “Document JS21(I),” part of a 26-page "determination notice" explaining the various violations in connection with Full Tilt Poker. The amount was much larger than the number Full Tilt Poker said was seized prior to April 15, 2011. In a statement released to the press on Aug. 31, Full Tilt Poker said the following: "Over the two years preceding Black Friday, the US government seized approximately $115M of player funds located in U.S. bank."
The discrepancy of more than $200 million has been widely scrutinized since that statement by Full Tilt Poker was released. The error could very well be the result of numerous accounting oversights. The AGCC has claimed Full Tilt Poker continuously reported funds that were not available because of several problems with payment processors and, instead of auditing the online poker site itself, the AGCC had trusted the numbers reported by Full Tilt's accounting department as accurate.
Read the full press release at the AGCC's website.
