According to sources at Subjectpoker.com, both Phil Ivey and David Benyamine have, over the course of the past two to three years, borrowed large amounts of money from Full Tilt Poker.
Benyamine’s accounts are the seemingly less harmful of the two– while he still owes money to FTP, the remarkable thing is that he was overheard talking on the phone while in Vegas, asking about money for his WSOP buy-ins (Full Tilt was sponsoring him before they went belly-up), and that in early May, he was able to withdraw money (over 5,000 dollars) from his FTP account for travel expenses. If Full Tilt was in a bind and could not transfer money through the site by the time the WSOP rolled around, how was Benyamine getting his money? It seems that a lot of what happens at Full Tilt is going on behind the scenes, away from the prying eyes of customers (and accountants).
According to Ivey’s account records, he has borrowed $11 million from Full Tilt Poker and has yet to repay about $6 million of it. How many players accounts could be settled with that returned money? What did Ivey hope to gain by suing Full Tilt about the frozen accounts? Consider Full Tilt Poker’s statement after Phil Ivey filed his lawsuit against FTP (and hastily withdrew– and no wonder!):
- “In an effort to further enrich himself at the expense of others, Mr. Ivey appears to have timed his lawsuit to thwart pending deals with several parties that would put money back in players’ pockets. In fact, Mr. Ivey has been invited — and has declined — to take actions that could assist the company in these efforts, including paying back a large sum of money he owes the site.”
Is it possible that Full Tilt is tired of being on the hook for their economic disaster, and they’re leaking information about Ivey and Benyamine to give the public someone else to hate? Well, that’s entirely possible (and not unlikely, actually). The public, however, doesn’t seem to be taken aback so much by the fact that the players were loaned extraordinary amounts of money, but that Full Tilt let them. Likewise, Benyamine isn’t being blamed for withdrawing money from his account– instead, FTP customers are wondering why he can take money out of his US-based account when no one else can.
What’s really worrisome about this (apart from the fact that Full Tilt has no problem throwing around millions of dollars to its select players but can’t seem to manage paying back its customers, whose accounts are still frozen) is that this may be an indication of how Full Tilt does business on a greater scale. How many players in the rest of Team Full Tilt (there are thirteen players besides Ivey) or among the Full Tilt Pros (Benyamine is one of the 159) are getting the same kinds of deals that these two are? One irate former Full Tilt player, upon learning of these developments, has expressed frustration that Full Tilt has been “an ATM that certain pros were able to access at will.” More and more, it seems as thought Full Tilt is not in a position where they can’t pay people back, but one where they won’t pay people back.
The class action lawsuit against Full Tilt names Phil Ivey and other members of Team Full Tilt and Full Tilt Pros as partial owners of Full Tilt, and claims that they are in part responsible for the actions of the company. Regardless of whether or not this is true, Ivey and other pros played fast and loose with Full Tilt Poker, and while these transfers and loans may well not be illegal, to a poker-loving public that doesn’t have millions of dollars to throw around and is still waiting to see their money, these actions certainly seem a little dicey. To access all the details from subjectpoker’s investigation, visit the following URL: