Tiltware's Furst in Black Friday settlement
Former board member agrees to forfeiture but admits to no wrongdoing.
Rafe Furst, one of the four board members of former Full Tilt Poker software company Tiltware named in the First Amended Civil Complaint against the operator, has reached a settlement with the Southern District of New York.
Furst has agreed to forfeit the funds held in an account registered to the Telamonian Ajax Trust, which had been tied to him in the complaint, for which a warrant was filed in September 2011.
He has also agreed to the forfeiture of a further US$150,000 in “Additional funds”, for which a payment schedule will be implemented in the future, however he has admitted to no liability for the company’s alleged wrongdoings.
SDNY has confirmed that, upon receipt of the funds held by the Telamonian Ajax Trust, “The in rem forfeiture against the defendant property and the civil money laundering claims against Furst shall be dismissed with prejudice.”
According to the First Amended Complaint, Furst received $11m in distributions, while fellow board members Ray Bitar, Howard Lederer and Chris Ferguson are said to have received $41m, $42m and $25m respectively.
Today’s settlement, seen by Diamond Flush Poker, also confirms that Furst will neither work for nor derive money from any US-facing egaming operation “Until if and when a change in applicable law takes place making the offering of such gambling lawful in the United States and Furst…obtains appropriate authorization from all relevant governmental regulatory authorities.”
Furst had already been precluded from having any involvement with the operation of the “new” Full Tilt under the terms of PokerStars’ $731m acquisition agreement for the operator in July.
In July he had, along with Ferguson, joined Lederer’s motion to dismiss the charges levelled in the First Amended Complaint, contesting whether the Illegal Gambling Business Act (IGBA) applied to FTP’s activities.
At the time he issued a supporting memorandum via his legal representatives, claiming: “The allegations against Mr. Furst are even more sparse than those against Mr. Lederer, and do not make out the necessary elements of a claim for money laundering penalties under any theory.”
In September a second complaint was filed against Lederer and Bitar, and following this Lederer filed a new motion to dismiss. Ferguson has since joined this motion.