The US Department of Justice announced on Monday that class action settlement company Garden City Group (GCG) will monitor the process for the compensation of Absolute Poker players who were not able to withdraw their funds from the online poker room after it was faced with a civil action for money laundering, illegal gambling provision, and other allegations back in 2011.
Here it is important to note that GCG had previously been charged with overseeing the repayment process of affected Full Tilt Poker players. Up to now, the amount of $118 million has been returned to their rightful owners. However, there are more players to be returned their funds from Full Tilt Poker and it is yet unknown when this will happen.
It was on April 15, 2011 when the international poker community was struck by the announcement that PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and Absolute Poker were indicted for allegedly providing US players with real-money online poker offering in the years after the implementation of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. As mentioned above, bank fraud and money laundering were also among the offenses the masterminds behind the three poker brands were charged with.
Under a 2012 agreement with the United States, PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker agreed for the latter to forfeit all its assets and for the former to assume liability for the amount of $184 million Full Tilt Poker owed its players.
A year later, Absolute Poker along with its sister brand Ultimate Bet entered a similar agreement with the United States to forfeit assets.
Here it is important to note that the the Full Tilt Poker refunding process began less than two years after the indictment was unsealed on April 15, 2011. GCG has received 53,220 claims from US players of the poker brand and 44,320 of them have been returned their money since then. However, it took five years before refunding procedure was opened for Absolute Poker players.
Last month, Scott Tom, co-founder of the above-mentioned poker operator, returned to the US to finally appear before New York court in relation to the 2011 charges against him. According to court filings, Tom and 10 other individuals from Absolute Poker, Full Tilt Poker, and PokerStars had been accused of transferring huge amounts of money from the US through what had seemed as completely legitimate shell companies. Tom pleaded not guilty in March and was released on a $500,000 bond. His case is yet to be resolved completely.
Absolute Poker gained huge notoriety during the years of its existence not only because of the April 2011 legal proceedings but even prior to that. In 2007, the poker room found itself locked in a cheating scandal, after players claimed that a superuser had been able to see their hole cards and thus gain advantage during playing sessions.
