Apr.08, 2010

Despite being one of the two faces of the online poker industry, along with PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker has faced a number of allegations in its brief 5-year history. The popular online poker site is batting 1.000 up to this point, but the latest probe has nothing to do with a civil suit; according to FinancialTimes.com, this time around it’s the US government looking into possible money laundering charges against Full Tilt Poker, Tiltware LLC, and the top pros that run the site –Howard Lederer and Chris Ferguson were both named in the Financial Times article.

Furthermore, the online poker forums have had numerous instances of Full Tilt members posting about being visited by FBI agents investigating Full Tilt Poker; claims which at first were dismissed as Full Tilt bashers or Trolling.

According to the Financial Times piece, the site is being looked into by a federal grand jury in Manhattan on possible Wire Act violations, including money laundering, and although the article cites UIGEA infractions, the legislation has yet to go into effect. The probe is still in the preliminary phases and no charges have yet been filed.

The US government has carefully picked its poison when it comes to prosecuting online poker, and tends to look to settle outside of court as they did with Party Poker, and Party’s former CEO Anarug Dikshit, for a 9-figure settlement. Another recent criminal investigation was launched against online poker payment processor Account Services, and over $30 million was seized.

A lawyer for Full Tilt told Financial Times, “He was not prepared to comment on a speculative grand jury investigation he had not been informed of.”

Stay tuned for the latest developments on this unfolding saga…