Full Tilt Poker Remission Process: Mid-November Application Deadline for Refunds
Late on Friday afternoon, the DOJ-appointed claims administrator for Full Tilt Poker, Garden City Group (GCG), announced more specifics for the upcoming remission process for the site’s former American players.
Fully 28 months after the “Black Friday” seizure of the Full Tilt domains and numerous bank accounts associated with what was, at the time, the second largest online poker site serving US-based players, GCG has announced that e-mails to players who have already registered with the site will receive e-mailed instructions on how to apply for a refund, beginning one month from today. GCG has temporarily disabled additional registrations for the refund process.
All former US players — including those who have already registered with GCG and those who have yet to do so, using the alternate registration plans GCG plans to publish — will have until November 15th to apply for a refund.
Two weeks ago, GCG confirmed that the players’ existing balances at the time of the Black Friday-ordered shutdown of FTP would be used in determining individual player refunds, and that only FTP balances (and not those from other Black Friday-affected sites, such as AbsolutePoker or UB.com), would be included in the remission process.
International players of the old Full Tilt were reunited with their pre-Black Friday account balances about a year ago, after former FTP rival PokerStars purchased all remaining assets of the site as part of PokerStars’ own complicated settlement with the US DOJ. As part of that agreement, those international players could either cash out their balances or continue to play with those funds on a Stars-revamped, new FTP, which no longer accepts American players.
Here’s the GCG notice, in its entirety:
Important Update About the Start of the Claims Process
Starting on September 16, 2013, GCG will email a Notice with instructions on how to submit a Petition for Remission online to all potentially eligible claimants identified by GCG utilizing data supplied by Full Tilt Poker (“FTP”). The deadline to submit a Petition for Remission is November 15, 2013. Instructions concerning the filing of Petitions will be included in the Notice and will be posted on this website. Please continue to check this website for updates. Please note that the registration process for email notification is no longer available.
GCG, working with the Asset Forfeiture Unit of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and the Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section of the United States Department of Justice, has completed the review of data provided by FTP. It has been determined that the calculation formula to be used for the Petition for Remission process will be based on players’ final balances with FTP as of April 15, 2011 (the “FTP Account Balances”). Account balances from online poker sites other than FTP are not included in this remission process. Petitioners must also meet all other requirements outlined in 28 C.F.R. § 9.8 to be considered eligible for remission.
If you do not receive an email notice and you believe you are eligible to participate in the remission process, you may file a claim online using the directions that will be provided on this website.
If the forfeited funds available for distribution equal or exceed the aggregate FTP Account Balances for all eligible Petitioners, each eligible Petitioner with an approved claim will receive the entirety of his or her FTP Account Balance. If the aggregate FTP Account Balances for all eligible Petitioners exceed the funds available for distribution, payments shall be made to eligible Petitioners on a pro rata basis.
Please continue to check this website [FullTiltPokerClaims.com] for updates regarding this administration.
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