Online Poker Site Full Tilt Poker Cited for Operating a ‘Massive’ Ponzi Scheme

On Tuesday, a Manhattan U.S. attorney exposed Full Tilt Poker for operating a massive ponzi scheme. This charge is in addition to the previous ones brought on the company for bank fraud, illegal gambling and money laundering.

ESPN.com reports that Attorney Preet Bharara filed for an amendment of the original complaint, which was issued back in April. The complaint accuses the compnany of using its player funds to pay board members and other owners more than $440 million.

Even though FTP was crediting its users with funds, they never had the cash to represent the amount of funds in all of the accounts. In fact, as reported on ESPN.com as of March 31, the website owed players around the world a total of $390 million, but only had $59 million on hand.

"Full Tilt insiders lined their own pockets with funds picked from the pockets of their most loyal customers while blithely lying to both players and the public alike about the safety and security of the money deposited with the company," Bharara said in a statement.

Named in the release as board members were high-profile players including Howard Lederer, Chris Ferguson and Rafael "Rafe" Furst.

The Alderney Gambling Control Commission suspended Full Tilt Poker's license in June. Since then, the poker website hasn't been in business.

It seems safe to say that after this discovery, FTP won't be in business much longer.