Large sums of money sourced from the $225 million paid over by Pokerstars in its settlement and Full Tilt Poker acquisition agreements with the US Department of Justice (see previous reports) are being kept in reserve in case claims against Full Tilt assets lodged by the state of Kentucky and private US company Cardroom International are successful, court documents have revealed.
Over $66 million is locked up in two US Department of Justice accounts whilst the Department contests separate claims from the two entities.
The Kentucky claim goes back several years to the state’s audacious but abortive attempt to seize the domains of 141 international internet gambling companies, a case which has travelled between various levels and courts in the Kentucky judicial structure and is still not finalised (see previous reports).
The state’s rather tenuous claim has been opposed by the Department, ironically enough in part using a legal tactic which Kentucky’s outsourced lawyers themselves used to stave off opposition to their original confiscation attempts – that it has no legal standing in the present case, and that the attempted seizure was both unsuccessful and unconstitutional.
Nevertheless, the DoJ has put a contingency fund of almost $36.5 million on ice against the possibility of Judge Leonard Sand allowing the Kentucky claim.
Florida-based Cardroom International’s claim is somewhat more complex and revolves around its alleged copyright asset in elements which it claims are involved in the Full Tilt – DoJ – Pokerstars deal (see previous reports) In this case the Department has made provision of $30 million against an adverse judgement.