Poker Pros Comment On Full Tilt Debacle

On April 15th, 2011, Full Tilt Poker had its website shut down in the USA followed by its operations throughout the rest of the world on June 29th.
Furthermore, in addition to the revelation that the company mixed its players deposits with its operating funds and cannot now pay back an estimated $300-400 million to its customers, it has also been revealed that the board, which includes Howard Lederer and Jesus Ferguson, actually payed themselves $443,860,529 between April 2007 and April 2011.
In light of the storm in the poker community caused by Full Tilt’s mismanagement, many pros have been commenting recently on the beleaguered poker room described as a ‘global Ponzi scheme’ by Manhattan prosecutor Preet Bharara.
Here are a selection of the opinions stated by some of the game’s top pros:
Daniel Negreanu: “Not a fan of the Lederer family. That brother, sister duo was behind the two biggest scandals in poker history.”
Mike “Timex” McDonald: “When I got ‘Howard Lederer’s Secrets of NLHE’ DVD for my 15th birthday I never imagined that one day I’d be voting him out of a poker league.”
Tony G: “No mention of Ivey in the documents. I believe we have our inside man.”
JC Alvarado: “This is what happens when you leave $443 million in the hands of people who’s maxim all through the 90s was, “if you can’t spot the sucker…”
Tony Dunst: “Feeling worse by the day about the money in my FTP account. Feeling better by the day that I declined being a red pro. #F***scammers.”
Kathy Liebert: “I’m happy I never had any deals with FTP. I still can’t believe all that player money stolen…so wrong.”
Jon Aguiar: “With every day Phil [Ivey] remains silent more questions and rumors emerge about him, the latest ones being that he is an informant (unlikely) and that he has a substantial fortune that remains untouched, roughly equivalent to the fortunes stolen by the other board members. I’ve been a huge Ivey fan my whole poker life, but with every day that rumors fly with no answers it becomes harder and harder to have blind faith in my hero.”