Open Letter

I have complete confidence that you knowingly did nothing wrong. You have my support, love, and I look forward to your vindicatIon. The truth shall set you free. I am proud of all you have done and will follow your future closely . My best to you and your family. Mike Gordon

haters? Tons of people lost their mortgage in this tragedy. Dont call haters some guys trying to understand who stole their money.

you sir should find the back of a cell for years to come, screw you and your cat!  I don’t believe a word of a crook/thief and you sir are both!

Only way to redeem yourself is to pay back every cent you made from FTP to pay back players.  If  not hope you run good in jail.

rafe you and your cronies are shameless, disgusting, immoral, and utterly repugnant and i hope you rot in a jail cell with howard, chris, and the rest of you greedy bastards!  I hope you all feel the pain for a very long time. 

This all resolves around the US goverment taking away the rights and freedoms of Americans that want to rightfully play online poker. Goood Luck.

I got evicted from my apartment…I bet your living in a gated community cunt. Pay me my money.

Rafe, you sound sincere (at least this is my read). I have 2/3rds of my net-worth stuck at FTP, so I am biased. Best of luck to you if you are indeed innocent - I can only imagine the position you’re in if that was the case. But if not, I can only hope that you would do everything in your power to put players’ interests before your own and make things right.

That’s still not going to get me my money back.Him and lederer and ferguson hopfully will get what they deserve in court.They are no different than bernie madoff,they STOLE from us.Where are howard and chris hiding in there mansions that they baught with our money.I don’t care what this cry baby has to say in less it heres you’re money.They should go to prison for a long time where they belong.They are paying for there legal counsil with our money.I don’t know how they can sleep at night.They are the scum of the earth and there is a special place in hell for people like them. 

pay back the money you stole and then you can start posting this shit ..

pay back the money you stole and then you can start posting this shit ..

Sry rafe, i know its hard, but you all have made Big failures And there is no reason to understand your doings. Don’t cry its too Late… Have eggs and payout all the believing Players which made you rich. They all need the Money… And alot of them payed their Life by playing Poker…. Think about it… AND HAVE EGGS!

Sry rafe, i know its hard, but you all have made Big failures And there is no reason to understand your doings. Don’t cry its too Late… Have eggs and payout all the believing Players which made you rich. They all need the Money… And alot of them payed their Life by playing Poker…. Think about it… AND HAVE EGGS!

Everybody in FTP team says they are innocent. Who as the money belonging to the players

Everybody in FTP team says they are innocent. Who as the money belonging to the players

Give back what you took.

I don’t know or care if you were knowingly doing anything wrong, end result is the same.   No way you should be able to keep all that money you took out of FTP when they can’t even repay the players.

Give back what you took.

I don’t know or care if you were knowingly doing anything wrong, end result is the same.   No way you should be able to keep all that money you took out of FTP when they can’t even repay the players.

Can’t wait to see you in prison.

Can’t wait to see you in prison.

So disgusting for you to play the victim card here. People’s lives are ruined because of you and your partners mismanagement of Full Tilt Poker. Even if you didn’t personally steal any money, you put your name and reputation behind the company, and it seems to great financial gain. You made your bed, now lie in it.

So disgusting for you to play the victim card here. People’s lives are ruined because of you and your partners mismanagement of Full Tilt Poker. Even if you didn’t personally steal any money, you put your name and reputation behind the company, and it seems to great financial gain. You made your bed, now lie in it.

Swine.

Swine.

Glad you’re receiving support and all. However, try living on less than $5 a day as a direct result of the site’s troubles. FTP caught many of us with our pants down. In my case, I can’t pay rent, eat properly or go out at all anymore. Tried withdrawing for months before 4/15 with no response AT ALL from support.

Glad you’re receiving support and all. However, try living on less than $5 a day as a direct result of the site’s troubles. FTP caught many of us with our pants down. In my case, I can’t pay rent, eat properly or go out at all anymore. Tried withdrawing for months before 4/15 with no response AT ALL from support.

The simple fact that you allowed this to go on for so long and not coming out right away and being honest to your customers is shameful.  Trying to cover up the truth never works, did you think we would just forget about this? Did you the the DOJ would just go away? How can you take such a HUGE money printing company and run it so poorly?  How could you allow players to deposit, and then GAMBLE away MY $$ on deposit?  You had NO right to use my money to fund losing players? You had No right to do anything with my $ other than give it to me whenever I ask. Your compnay issues false statements over and over again, you’ll get no sympathy from the masses, and you all deserve jailtime, and to have everything you own siezed, sold and given back to us, the rightful owners.

The simple fact that you allowed this to go on for so long and not coming out right away and being honest to your customers is shameful.  Trying to cover up the truth never works, did you think we would just forget about this? Did you the the DOJ would just go away? How can you take such a HUGE money printing company and run it so poorly?  How could you allow players to deposit, and then GAMBLE away MY $$ on deposit?  You had NO right to use my money to fund losing players? You had No right to do anything with my $ other than give it to me whenever I ask. Your compnay issues false statements over and over again, you’ll get no sympathy from the masses, and you all deserve jailtime, and to have everything you own siezed, sold and given back to us, the rightful owners.

you sir are an idiot.  Rafe and the rest of these bastards belong in jail for the rest of their lives.  They are nothing more than low life, scumbag criminals.

I don’t really see a reason why anyone would support you, it’s like supporting Casey Anthony, everything looks bad for you. GL in Jail

I don’t really see a reason why anyone would support you, it’s like supporting Casey Anthony, everything looks bad for you. GL in Jail

Bernie madoff didn’t think he did anything wrong either.I HOPE YOU GO TO PRISON.There will be alote of guys ferguson can do his swing dancing with in the shower.

Bernie madoff didn’t think he did anything wrong either.I HOPE YOU GO TO PRISON.There will be alote of guys ferguson can do his swing dancing with in the shower.

Actions always speak louder than words.  I remember playing poker with you and Phil Gordon in Tahoe at Christmas several years ago, we played 2/5 and it was such a joy that two professional players took time to play in a little 2/5 game.  I have always followed you two guys thru the years and hope that this is all a big misunderstanding.  But I must say I am an attorney as well and well it dont look too good from where I’m sitting.  A lot of people are hurt by not being able to get their money, and as I said in the beginning, Actions speak louder than words.  Good luck with the feds, they are a tough bunch.

Actions always speak louder than words.  I remember playing poker with you and Phil Gordon in Tahoe at Christmas several years ago, we played 2/5 and it was such a joy that two professional players took time to play in a little 2/5 game.  I have always followed you two guys thru the years and hope that this is all a big misunderstanding.  But I must say I am an attorney as well and well it dont look too good from where I’m sitting.  A lot of people are hurt by not being able to get their money, and as I said in the beginning, Actions speak louder than words.  Good luck with the feds, they are a tough bunch.

I have loved playing on Fulltilt and believe it to be the best software out there. I was treated with class at many Fulltilt sponsored events and at the WSOP. But, for Fulltilt to remain so silent through all this when millions of players have been so faithful is like sticking a knife in our backs. We feel betrayed and when news comes out like this, why would you expect us not to believe the government? Maybe the money was mismanaged and you are telling the truth and had Black Friday not happened our money would be safe but, to leave us with no answers or not to at least pay my american friends before you lost your licence is totally unacceptable.

I have loved playing on Fulltilt and believe it to be the best software out there. I was treated with class at many Fulltilt sponsored events and at the WSOP. But, for Fulltilt to remain so silent through all this when millions of players have been so faithful is like sticking a knife in our backs. We feel betrayed and when news comes out like this, why would you expect us not to believe the government? Maybe the money was mismanaged and you are telling the truth and had Black Friday not happened our money would be safe but, to leave us with no answers or not to at least pay my american friends before you lost your licence is totally unacceptable.

It seems most of the commenters so far have not considered, as Rafe asked, that not everything you read is true.  I wish the best for all parties involved.

Someone at Full Tilt screwed up but it wasn’t Rafe.  There’s no question that the truth about who is accountable will come to light.  Until then, I hope you remain strong.  We believe in you.

yeah, you’re a regular saint

Let’s all find some sympathy for poor Rafe and his character…

Use your dividends to buy some new friends.

Off to work, only another 1554 hours worth of it and ill have the money you and your accomplices stole from me.

Well played bro, well played.

Stay strong, Rafe. Having been through something similar on a smaller scale, I can assure you that no matter what you say or do the hate is going to keep pouring in. I believe most of you guys are in the situation that you’re in now because of the bad judgement of one or two people compounded by some bad luck.

The future will still look bright for you even after Full Tilt becomes a painful memory.

I wish you guys the best in rebounding from this personally, and that’s coming from someone who had ~60% of his net worth tied up on the site.

Having “good intentions” and “doing the right thing” are completely separate propositions. Although I don’t believe you meant to do anything wrong, and at the core you have a good soul, there is absolutely no excuse for utilizing player funds to expand your business. Your actions are inexcusable.

great and i couldnt pay my rent for the last 2 months bc ftp suckers robbed me. so either you are greedy scumbag like your collegues or just dumb and ignorant as fuck for not realizing what was going on soon enough.

either way i wish you and your collegues the worst possible things. enjoy your $11mio

If you are innocent you will have no problem paying back at least 10-20 % of 12 Million, if you fight it, you are guilty.  Put up or shut up.  If you had no idea of the huge hole in player deposits, call out Howard Lederer and Chris Ferguson and put the blame on them and pay back money that was stolen from people less fortunate.

How dare you talk about character assassination when the company you were an owner of still owes $160 million to United States pokers players.  You remind me of Bernie Ebbers, Ken Lay, Russ Hamilton, and Jeff Skilling declaring character assassination and innocence. 

Pay back some money or ruin your reputation forever.  If you hide behind vague legal ignorance you will never be looked at in any other light than as a scumbag.  You will be put with Howard Lederer and the rest of the owners forever in the poker community.

Mr. Furst you may be ignorant to the atrocities which were committed  by the company you represent, however it is a fact that they have outright stole from thousands of people.  Tom Dwan another rep. of FTP has admitted to the companies shortcomings and is willing to pay back every cent he made from this fraudulent business< why if you are innocent are you not pledging to the same???  Obviously the money which was paid to you can be directly attributed to an illegal ponzi scheme, until this money is paid back in full by yourself and the rest of your associates You my friend are a criminal and should be treated as such.

Having “good intentions” and “doing the right thing” are completely
separate propositions. Although I don’t believe you meant to do anything
wrong, and at the core you have a good soul, there is absolutely no
excuse for utilizing player funds to expand your business. Your actions
are inexcusable.

What is true is that a company that he is PROVEN to have ownership of has been unable to pay back players around the world, its also proven that they DID NOT have enough money to pay their players BEFORE April 15th, 2011.  So, where did our deposits go?

Having “good intentions” and “doing the right thing” are completely
separate propositions. Although I don’t believe you meant to do anything
wrong, and at the core you probably have a good soul, there is absolutely no
excuse for utilizing player funds to expand your business. The actions of Full Tilt’s leadership team are completely inexcusable no matter how you slice it.

What I see below is a bunch of inbred trash posting pure ignorance on (apparently) anything related to poker and/or poker online. If you’re an adult with an IQ higher than a thumbnail, you’d know that the justice system we live under in this country is “innocent until proven guilty”.

Got that assholes?  You MORON who says you believe the government so it must be true.. does it sink in moron?   They brought a case, an accusation and the case has not gone before the court system yet for the FACTS to come out.

Can you morons stick your guns back in your pants and wait for the case to be brought before a judge when the complete details and facts come out?

What a bunch of cowards, losers, peons you are to hide behind your keyboard and convict these people from your basement. 

Run off now and turn on Fox News, owned by Rupert Murdoch just like WSJ is.  Their kind of “facts” seem to suit the ilk who want to hang’em first and get the details later.

I’ve known Rafe personally for well over two decades, and Rafe was in fact a huge influence on my desire to learn and play the game of poker.  I was interested in playing poker because I felt I could never tell if someone was telling the truth or lying to me…seemed like a good place to develop that skill.  Surprisingly, thanks to the online poker world, I found out it’s not about tells or eye twitches, but rather, it’s all about a consistent story.  If it sounds unreasonable, it probably is.

I say this because I know Rafe, and I know he is a good person.  Through his work raising funds for cancer research and all the time and effort he volunteers to young entrepreneurs, he really does do quite a bit for others.  

I for one, don’t believe everything I read.

I had no money on FTP (I was lucky in the UK to get it out 15th April) but it pains me to see poker and poker players being dragged through the dirt by this and our game and the people who play it made to look dishonest - pls pledge to give back any money you got from FTP at least.

lol ur calling us haters, when u basically have all our money….. fuk u man - show some god damn remorse instead waambulancing about ppl being upset at u…. WTF DID U EXPECT…god ur letter tilts me.

u owe me 35k 
ty

So since rafe didnt screw up, just HIS company did, I guess everything is ok, and they can just keep all of our money.  And also, feel free to lie and attempt to cover up this mess untill the DOJ smacks ur *** into prison, dirtbag pos

Dear Rafe Furst,

I would like to extend my sincerest apologies to you for enduring the criticism that has been bestowed upon you.  Its not your fault that a company in which you own has stolen hundreds of millions of dollars from poker players, and tarnished the industry.

Is that what you’re looking for?  An apology for ripping you a new asshole in the media and across the web?  Who THE FUCK do you think you are looking for sympathy?  You MAY deserve some sympathy once the truth comes out and absolves you of wrong doing.  But until then, enjoy being criticized and called a criminal.  You deserve it.

I hope one day it can be proven that you are innocent and a victim, because I want that to be the case.  How dare you expect that from us now, though.  You deserve nothing but what you are getting.

What do you think Rafe’s role was at Full Tilt? Knowing what we know about Chris and Rafe, isn’t it pretty safe to assume that they were primarily tasked with building the technology that allowed the card room to operate?

If you ran the show at Full Tilt, wouldn’t you contract out the sneaky work involved in handling payments in the USA? And wouldn’t you have those decisions being made as far away from the rest of the stakeholders of the company as possible?

I’m guessing that very few (maybe only one) person at Full Tilt knew about it when US processing broke down, and the decision was made to float deposits until the transactions could hopefully be serviced via a different processor in the future. The person that made that decision likely hid that information from the rest of the team for as long as possible, to save their own skin.

If that theory is at all close to what happened, I would imagine guys like Rafe found out after it was much to late to do anything to right the ship.

Fuck You

Correct.  It is very POSSIBLE Rafe didn’t know about anything until it was too late.  But can we just step back and think about the utter idiocy it would take to be an owner of Full Tilt and NOT know, at all times, the status of payment processors?  Is that not the most important part of the business?

I’m not necessarily saying that Rafe made uttered the words: “let’s run this company into the ground and still pay exorbitant dividends”.  What I’m saying is that as an owner of the company he should a) KNOW WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON and b) make rational business decisions that don’t exacerbate a problem and c) accept full blame when his company is caught stealing hundreds of millions of dollars from its customers.

It is almost inconceivable to think that Rafe can make a blog post asking for sympathy from the very customers his company stole money from.  Yet here we are…

Why, no one has gone to jail for AIG, or FANNYMae or FREDDYMac, why should these guys be singled out when we don’t put even bigger criminals in jail?

Rafe, 

I commend you for posting an open letter and asking for public comments. “I’d love to hear from you publicly.” This is like asking to be the verbal punching bag and not being able to defend yourself. 

You play in mud you going to get muddy. If your innocent or not, you still played in the mud, and family’s are suffering behind this, poker careers lost or put on hold. Yet you right a blog all about poor Ray Ray.

Innocent until proven otherwise. 
I know Rafe personally and know he is a good person. 
Sad to see everyone casting blame and convicting someone who has only been accused of something and not convicted of something.
Hang in there, Rafe.

Why are you so sure Rafe is a clear victim?  What has he done to prove that besides demonstrate that he can write a blog post?  I’m floored by the fact that you sympathize with him, especially since you have 60% of your NW on FT.  I almost don’t believe that.  Are you correctly processing the magnitude of the situation.  Rafe is the owner of a company that made a slew of HORRENDOUS business and ethics decisions, and simultaneously tried to cover it up for as long as possible.  Not to mention paying out dividends to owners the whole time.

Are you aware that Rafe has a % of your money in his bank account?

Again I’d like to reiterate I am not saying Rafe is guilty.  I’m saying his company is guilty, and as a result, Rafe deserves all of the criticism he gets until his company’s wrongs are righted.

This blog post is akin to the CEO of an airline asking for people’s sympathies after one of his airplanes crashed and killed X people.  All because people were criticizing him because the company he runs lied about safety standards.

This is ridiculous, I really ask you to reconsider your sentiment in the above post.

Rafe,

The least you could do is say “I’m sorry about the money.”  Is that so hard?  At least that way you only look like a douche instead of an utter and complete fucking moronic douche.

Bonnies: you don’t have all of the facts yet.

You are so right just because one person gets away with murder why should we all not go kill someone and expect zero consequences.

Heck, all I want is my money back, and criminals to be punished.  Simple stuff, really.

I suspect scum like Rafe won’t last to long in the pokey.  He’s scared for his life, and should be. Imagine being called the Madoff of Poker, and accused of cheating his customers out of countless millions? 
His cellmates will kick his butt if he tries to cheat them out of cigarettes and soap.  He’ll end up like Jeffery Dahmler did, on the short end of a broom stick.

To everyone who doesn’t know Rafe, but lost their money on FTP: Please separate the two. Endlessly bashing Rafe (a person you don’t know) won’t get your money back any sooner. 

Rafe is by all accounts a mensch and not deserving of your comments. If you’d like to vent your frustration about FTP’s mismanagement, find another space for it. 

Rafe is by all accounts a mensch. If you don’t know him personally, I’m sorry that you have not had the pleasure. 

I’ve been very critical of Rafe thus far in the comments section.  I still stand by what I said, though.  He probably is a good person, with good intentions.  But I am extremely upset that Rafe thinks its appropriate to ask for sympathy from the public.  It’s not fair.  We’re the ones that deserve sympathy and justice.  His company wronged us.  We aren’t wronging him by criticizing him.  He represent the company, he benefited from his company’s criminal actions, and he was a key decision maker (or should have been) in the events that led to this debacle.

He owes the players a lot.  His apologies, and his profits from Full Tilt.  We don’t owe him anything, especially an apology for being so critical.

I’m sorry Rafe, I’m sure this is an incredibly tough time for you and those close to you.  I’m sure you didn’t mean for this to happen, but it did.  And its your responsibility to fix it.  And I have faith that you are doing everything you can to fix it.  But stop asking for sympathy in the meantime.   You’ll get it once your name is cleared, and funds are returned.  And I hope your name is cleared.

Fact #1- players deposited money, and now it’s not there to payoff when requested.
Fact# 2- Rafe was an owner in this scheme.
Fact#3- Pay me my money!

You cant be serious, your company STOLE MILLIONS OF DOLLARS from its players and ruined countless lives in the process.  I dont care if you were just involved from a technical standpoint, you were still on the board of directors collecting fat paychecks that were stolen from myself and countless others.  Tell you what, you give me back MY $ that you STOLE and will have your back till then I will make it my goal to make sure that everyone knows what kind of scum you and Bitar, Lederer, and Ferguson really are.

I like Rafe, but there’s so much opulence, arrogance and recklessness, smothering this issue it’s enough to make a person waver in their compassion.  I wish Rafe and his family well, I really do.  But I hope that Rafe, Howard, and Chris are compelled to answer the tough questions, about their knowledge of, and complicity in this FTP debacle, that has cost it’s members their hard earned personal income. 

I have known Rafe for over 25 years and attest 1,000% to his absolute character and integrity. 

I am also VERY well informed on the course of events that has led us here. I KNOW that as opposed to Rafe being responsible for the current very unfortunate state of affairs, he probably more than anyone else in the WHOLE world did the most to try to PREVENT it.  

That truth will come out and when it does, I hope that those shouting loudest here and elsewhere at Rafe do so just as loudly to him in apology.

Rafe you are a lowlife and a narcissist of the highest order.  While
guys like Durrrr who made far less than you and had virtually no say in
the business just feel awful for the players involved and are willing to
do anything to help out the cause, you are sitting here as one of the
principal stakeholders actually posting a pity party for yourself. 

You didn’t post one word about how you feel about the players who have
lost hundreds of millions on your site (unbelievable, not one word!),
and of course as always gave us nothing in regards to any kind of status
update (positive or negative), but instead spent your entire post
actually making yourself look like a victim and asking people to go and
post flattering things about you. I can’t believe that you are so vain
that you would even complain about taking “potshots” online (you
seriously don’t think players have a right to be angry???).  You are a
crook at worst, and completely incompetent at best.  One thing we do
know for certain is that you are a selfish jerk who is capable of
looking outside of yourself.  The world is worse for having you in it. 

I do believe, and let me quote here… “My twitter is @rafefurst, and I’d love to hear from you publicly.”  So F off Chip Chirp

As I write this myself and many of my friends who financially supported Rafe and FTP by trusting in there site just to be financially crippled themselves because Rafe and the rest of FTP where to greedy to put the brakes on the FTP train before it went of the tracks. 
If Rafe had any ‘honor’ he would of written a blog about this as soon as he knew of the shortfall or when the funds were no longer segregated.
You cant hang out with a gang and not expect to be called a gangster yourself.

He deserves comments like “Can’t wait to see you in prison from a spineless twit named “blackdudewhowillrapeyou”?  You say, “I’m not saying that Rafe is guilty” and yet you’ve assumed that he had to have had knowledge of the criminal activities taking place. “You also say “You MAY deserve some sympathy once the truth comes out and absolves you
of wrong doing.  But until then, enjoy being criticized and called a
criminal.  You deserve it.” 
So you are in effect saying he’s guilty until proven innocent?  What country are you from Taylor.  Taylor doesn’t sound like a Mexican name, a country that’s judicial system is based on civil rather than common law and you are in fact guilty until proven innocent.  Perhaps you should pack up your stuff and move to Mexico where the law better suits your mentality… 
 

He deserves comments like “Can’t wait to see you in prison from a spineless twit named “blackdudewhowillrapeyou”?  You say, “I’m not saying that Rafe is guilty” and yet you’ve assumed that he had to have had knowledge of the criminal activities taking place. “You also say “You MAY deserve some sympathy once the truth comes out and absolves you
of wrong doing.  But until then, enjoy being criticized and called a
criminal.  You deserve it.” 
So you are in effect saying he’s guilty until proven innocent?  What country are you from Taylor.  Taylor doesn’t sound like a Mexican name, a country that’s judicial system is based on civil rather than common law and you are in fact guilty until proven innocent.  Perhaps you should pack up your stuff and move to Mexico where the law better suits your mentality… 
 

He deserves comments like “Can’t wait to see you in prison from a spineless twit named “blackdudewhowillrapeyou”?  You say, “I’m not saying that Rafe is guilty” and yet you’ve assumed that he had to have had knowledge of the criminal activities taking place. “You also say “You MAY deserve some sympathy once the truth comes out and absolves you
of wrong doing.  But until then, enjoy being criticized and called a
criminal.  You deserve it.” 
So you are in effect saying he’s guilty until proven innocent?  What country are you from Taylor.  Taylor doesn’t sound like a Mexican name, a country that’s judicial system is based on civil rather than common law and you are in fact guilty until proven innocent.  Perhaps you should pack up your stuff and move to Mexico where the law better suits your mentality… 
 

Id be more then happy to kiss this mans feet, if the truth comes out that Rafe personally tried to publicly warn us players once he knew that are funds weren’t segregated and FTP was operating under a shortfall. Though as Rafe being a member of the board, and receiving payments from FTP when they only had 60mm of the hundreds of millions owed its real tough for me to believe this this to be the case.
One fact that is very clear, is that myself any many others as well as their family’s are financially crippled over this mess.

i have 30k on ftp.  i don’t have a place to live and can’t afford to eat now

regardless of what happened, i hope you and everyone you’re involved with fucking burns for this.  whoever was involved, you pieces of shit stole my life from me.

How about adding an apology to the players and showing US support? Amazing how you are begging for sympathy and can easily retire and live off the players money the rest of your life. Simple guys like most of us posting on here spent countless hours/months/years earning that money and idolizing the FT pros. I can now safely say I wasted about 1% of my life grinding on a ponzi based website and looking up to a bunch of unethical chumps…and for that, I thank you.

I will wait until all the facts of the case come out in court, not the court of public opinion. When I played online poker I only kept enough money in the account that I could afford to lose not my rent money, that is good bankroll management. I am not happy that FTP owes people money but that is a risk one takes putting money in an online account. In America a person is innocent until proven guilty by a jury, lets remember that,

You must feel terrible… Scumbag.

You must feel terrible… Scumbag.

 The fact of the matter is that the site COULD NOT cover player deposits. What kind of business is it that does not put their player deposits in escrow god-forbid something catastrophic happens. Like Black Friday. Fine. Maybe these people are innocent. But that’s not excuse for  running a business the way they did. Hope the people responsible never see the light of day again. They have ruined so many people’s lives.

“Innocent until proven guilty” is a safeguard against people losing their freedom without due process and proof beyond a reasonable doubt. As far as I can tell you have not been criminally charged, so that presumption has no application here.

I believe the following facts are not in dispute:

You had an ownership interest in FTP, and were an FTP director. You profited multiple millions of dollars from that relationship.

FTP held hundreds of millions of dollars in player funds that, for more than five months, have not been paid back. For that entire period you have been silent on the matter.

In those circumstances, I believe any person who is unable to obtain their balance from Full Tilt is entitled to demand from anyone who (1) was a Full Tilt owner, (2) was a Full Tilt director, or (3) profited more than seven figures by representing to the public that Full Tilt was a reliable poker site, an explanation regarding the failure to return funds. You have failed to provide any such explanation. 

When you accept a public position in a company that provides you with an large financial upside, you must also accept that you are responsible to your customers. You have a reputation for being trustworthy and moral. I don’t see how a person who has those qualities can deny that responsibility.

Whatever caused this player fund disaster, whether you initiated it, oversaw it, consented to it, purposely ignored it, or were completely oblivious to it, you still bear some responsibility for it. It disappoints me that while so many have lost so much trusting a company that you profited from, your first public statement is primarily concerned with your own well-being, when you have not been criminally indicted and are merely named a defendant in a civil proceeding that seeks to obtain money that rightfully belongs to the players. 

At least one member of Team Full Tilt, who I believe is not even an owner or director, has pledged to give back everything he earned from Full Tilt, a figure he states is over one million dollars. That option is open to you. 

Wait… Are you the same Robert Boyd who was on board with PokerSpot when they stole all of their players funds and 9 years later have yet to make any attempt to pay any money back? You are? Oh, then shut the fuck up.

What kind of open letter is this?? You enrich yourself and then ask for sympathy and respect???? You can only get the respect back if you pay back the players, including me! I bet that the indictments ofthe  DoJ are not based on some rumors, but on evidence. The only relevant questions that remain:
1. Are the players going to get paid back THEIR money?
2. When will the players going to get paid back THEIR money?
3. How are the players going to get paid back THEIR money?

So what is the plan? I really do not care if you get away with the situation you created and end up with millions of dollars, as long as the players (including me) get their money back.

It’s all good Rafe after bubba pounds your ass daily fr 10 years you will get out and still emerge as a millionaire your new name will be “Rape” get used to it buddy.

It’s all good Rafe. For now on you will be known in the poker world as “Rape” as in what you and your corhorts did to the players of full tilt poker. Rape also as in what bubba will do to you daily for about 7 or so years when your ass reports to prison. Thinking you’ll be found innocent ? Think again the government rarely loses these cases. But hey if your lucky when you get out you’ll still be a millionaire.

I’ve known Rafe personally for about 10 years and know that he is a person of true integrity. I’ve never known a person that’s been surrounded by so many good people and friends in his life. There are hundreds of people that are true friends of Rafe and can also attest to his character. I know that as the information reveals itself in this case Rafe’s reputation will be salvaged.

That’s Russell Boyd.

stfu you fucking criminal

stfu you fucking criminal, you have been outed so stop crying innocence, hope you end up in jail

You can claim innocent until proven guilty all that you want, but there’s one thing about that that you are forgetting… When someone is on trial for armed robbery the victim of the crime knows that they were robbed and knows who did it. Cry all you want, but until every last one of us is paid you are guilty.

 The only reason that people might be posting from a “basement” is that they kept funds on FTP, and lost tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars. While people are suffering from losing their means of making a living, the people that STOLE the money, like scumbag Rafe and those nits Lederer and Ferguson are living large. Stealing money from people makes these people criminals, there is NO ARGUMENT about that _fact_

 If you want to read the facts that have been brought to light and then dispute them, go ahead. Until then, this is a matter that is as black and white as possible: money was stolen from players and used to pay millions upon millions to Rafe, Howard, Chris and others. They are criminal scumbags, end of story. This is not a subjective or arguable issue. The facts are the facts.

rafe ur a piece of fucking shit and im suing you in civil court , and i pray i see u soon u low life scum bag fuck , good luck walkling the streets

Open your eyes and look at reality you ARE guilty until proven innocent in the USA.  You are arrested, thrown in jail, and have to pay a lawyer or serve time before you even get to court.  Are you really telling me they are assuming you are innocent in doing this?  But yeah this guy is a douche.

Open your eyes and look at reality you ARE guilty until proven innocent in the USA.  You are arrested, thrown in jail, and have to pay a lawyer or serve time before you even get to court.  Are you really telling me they are assuming you are innocent in doing this?  But yeah this guy is a douche.

Hi Rafe, my prediction is that you, Howard, and Chris will be thrown into prison together. After many months of having no women, you and Howard will start finding Chris and his beautiful long hair appealing. Irritated that Chris is denying your guys advances to study the game theory of the way the brick was laid in your guys cell, you and Howard become angry. At this point Chris defends himself by flinging playing cards at you, like ESPN has showed us 432,000 times. Instead of having your wang turn out like the banana in the card flinging demonstrations, you and Howard decide to back off. Its at this point you and Howard gaze into eachothers eyes and realize that you have fallen in love. When in the yard, you guys frolic around hand in hand, giggling about memories past, singing Barbara Streisand songs in unison. Congrats Rafe, I hope you and Howard have a wonderful life together!

Go fuck yourself you narcissistic, scummy piece of shit. I’m worried about the large majority of my net worth locked on a website YOU represented and profited from for years and YOU’RE sitting in those profits and YOU’RE worried about people slandering and attacking your reputation. Get fucking real you scummy fuckin rat. 

Let us wait to see what the facts reveal.  The people who have money tied up in FTP deserve the utmost sympathy, not to mention hope and urgent support for them ultimately getting their money returned to them.  And a man who, as I know him, has shown himself to be singularly generous, open-minded, patient, curious, and compassionate deserves those things in return until we hear the full story.

oh hai Rafe, thats a real nice open letter. NOW I WANT MY FUCKING MONEY!

So the DOJ is completely wrong about millions be shuttled to your personal account(s)? They just reported this on a whim. You should step forward and pay back what you earned as Tom Dwan is doing. I don’t see any of that in this statement by you.

You are certainly the Emerging Fool.

-Former Full Tilt player barely paying bills.

Don’t get me wrong, I feel most terrible for the players. But I feel bad for almost everyone involved who did not play an active role in deception or gross negligence — which is the category I strongly suspect that Rafe belongs in.

I think the fact that this mistake could happen at all would indicate that poor accounting was probably endemic throughout the organization. If that’s the case then I don’t think we can believe the numbers that were published in the DOJ report. I think if those dispersements were actually made to the stakeholders that a core of them would have come together and covered the shortfall.

Everyone’s sick over this, but I don’t think you can just safely crucify any random person you can find wearing a FTP patch.

go fuck yourself you god damned asshole

how dare you have the audacity to think the public you and your ilk has robbed is being too mean to you. do you have even the slightest shred of self-respect? your company of frauds and crooks have since 4/15 have hyped up periodic updates that revealed nothing except attempted to stall for time while your thieving caught up with you.

it’s quite possible FTP wasn’t a ponzi scheme. at best you’re criminally negligent, incompetent, and a disgrace to anyone with the slightest amount of business sense. at best, you, judas and the poker walrus are fucking thieves who have been killing the golden goose by robbing everyone who put a cent into the site.

whatever the case may be, you deserve not even one ounce of sympathy and i find it laughable that on this day troy davis was executed without true cause while you get to post your bullshit pity party letter and will likely never see a day in prison.

you are a fucking clown and a disgrace to your species.

So instead of revealing anything pertinent, claiming any form of responsibility, or otherwise giving us any reason not to be skeptical, you provide a whiny, self-important letter that might as well have just said “quit hatin, yo.” Your business has fucked a lot of us over… now’s not the time to be phishing for sympathy.

“What I would like to express here is concern for my family, friends,
colleagues and supporters who believe in me and who feel my pain as if
it were their own”

Oops.  That’s one of the dumbest things I’ve seen written down since this whole thing started.  You don’t feel NEARLY ENOUGH pain yet Rafe.

thank god i had 90% of my bankroll on pokerstars (sheer luck because at one time it was about 50-50). but yeah i hope you and all your fucking cronies rot in jail for the rest of your pathetic lives

So constantly promoting your charitable side was really just a ploy to gain people’s trust so you could steal their money?  Instead of running around putting a bad beat on cancer how about you pay the players their money.

This statement is another smack in the face of all frauded FTP customers. No word of apology to the players your company stole money from or about the lives you ruined. Yes, it probably sucks pretty much for you to be accused of fraud and theft. Maybe you indeed did not know anything about what was going on. Honestly I don’t care.

I will have to leave my appartment next month. I can’t pay all my bills anymore playing low limits with the rest of my bankroll I still have. I have nothing left at the moment. I would happily trade positions with you sitting on millions of dollars that were stolen from other players while “having to endure the character assassination and potshots”. Stop crying and man up. Hundreds or thousands of people are off much worse because of FTP’s actions. I don’t care how you feel.

If you were a real man of honor, like Tom Dwan, you would do the same and agree to pay back all the money you made from FTP over the years. Then use that money and that way at least partially reimburse the players that were frauded. This would be much better than whining about how unfair you are treated.

Whether you are guilty or not, it wouldn’t hurt to say a quick sorry to the many many players whose money has not been paid back and for the complete lack of communication from your company. 

Even if you didn’t work there in a decision making capacity its still morally right to apologise to those affected. You might be a great guy with a great support network but the fact remains you look bad very bad in this whole mess, you either knew about it and didn’t do anything, were incompetent or just happy to sit there taking the players money in the form of dividends whilst the company was run into the ground. 

fuck you

how about you go fuck yourself

Robert,

you are attempting to absolve someone that was in a position of responsibility. it is the management’s responsibility to know and manage exactly what their staff are doing. Hence if the players in a team perfrom badly, shiow no heart or pride and get relegated it’s the manager that gets sacked.

Saying ‘I didn’t know’ doesn’t wash in law and there’s a reason fot that because the buck stops where the responsibility starts.

If you think only 1 person knew about tens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars being non-processed you are insane - it wasn’t a 1-day layover their processors packed up a while before

This letter from Furst is poor and self-centred. I understand the legal limitations and what he wants to get across but there’s lots of players who have lost millions from the company he helped to ‘manage’ so let’s get some perspective and apologise whilst he thinks about what he does with his 8 figure take-out from Tilt

wrighty

the players money was used to prop up a company run by thieves and crooks, full tilt was holding my/our money in trust to pass onto the winner. the only winner here are the bastards like ledderer, ferrgy and this lieing prick rafe…give the players THEIR cash back or i hope the fbi lock you and your thieving mates up. You will have plenty of time to play poker, or should i say you will be the poker prize in jail, bring plenty of lube rafe you will be someones bitch in jail…..maybe if your lucky you might get a cell with bubba, he hasnt had sex for a while, and you will look good to him.  ps dont drop the soap, you will get a 10inch surprise.

Dear Rafe.
I have been playing on fulltilt and have been supporting me and my wife and kid by playing on YOUR site.
1) I have had to sell EVERYTHING i owned to try and support me and my family.
2) I am nearing the end of my savings and is staring ruin in the face if it was only me , no problem, me kid is 1 year old and is the one that will suffer the most.
3) I made an error in judgement by leaving a very large part of my net worth on FTP.
4) I have been trying everyday to get a job but the fact that i have exclusively played poker as an occupation has severely prejudiced my chances of getting gainful employment.

For MY decisions in life i take full responsibility.

Which brings us to you…
1) Not ONCE have you shown ANY empathy, sympathy or any kind of remorse for the way OUR funds became unavailable.

2) You were/are a representative/owner of FTP and therefore represent any and all things associated with FTP. This includes the good AND the bad.

3)Unlike you i do NOT have millions of dollars in my bank account /trusts / offshore accounts, very shortly i will have nothing if things stay the way it currently is.

I have no idea what your character is like but publicly asking people to give you a pat on the back for being a “good person” while many of the people that looked up too you are suffering financially and emotionally is maybe asking too much.

The Damage that has been done to players and the poker industry as a whole by the actions of FTP at this stage is incalculable. I hope you understand this while you sitting in your house with electricity eating from your stocked refrigerator while feeling sorry for yourself.

You might be innocent or ignorant to any wrong doing but please do me and every other poker player that has lost almost everything and is struggling to get by a favor and make a positive contribution.

1. Help the DOJ with the information that you do know. Expose those responsible.
2. Setup a fund and deposit a couple of million into it and ask fellow “innocent” FTP owners/Reps to do the same.
3. Pay us atleast a predetermined percentage of the money owed to us to get by in the mean time.

Finally if you want me or any player without access to what rightfully belong to us to have any sympathy or remorse for your situation then have a little empathy for the situation that your company has placed us in.

Kind Regards
Angelo

Shut Ur Fucking Beak you damn criminal

lol

I hope your wife starts sucking cock for money soon to help repay what you owe you selfish piece of sh.it

By now you heff no doubt heard about zeese allegations against me in a Federal civil suit regarding Full Tilt Poker.  Because of ze seriousness of ze allegations I’m not able to comment at all about ze pending case, much as I would like to.  From a moral, personal and interpersonal perspective I feel I’ve got nothing to hide.  And since I trust in ze world vide system of justice and heff ze utmost respect for my legal counsel, I vill refrain from talking about ze case until it’s resolved.

Vot I would like to express here is concern for my family, friends, colleagues and supporters who believe in me and who feel my pain as if it were zeir own.  It sucks to heff to endure ze character assassination and potshots being taken at me in the media and social networks without being able to defend myself.  Privately though I heff received incredible support from many of you, and I can’t tell you how much it means to me.  May you never heff to endure something like zis, but if you do, I hope you heff friends as good as mine.

To ze skeptics, please consider zat not everything you read is true, and our society is built on a presumption of innocence until proven otherwise.  It’s difficult to take back hurtful things that you might later regret, when the damage has already been done.

To zose of you who heff asked what you can do to show your support, I am grateful for the offer.  My only request at this time would be to not let the naysayers and haters be the only voices out there expressing their opinion of me. My twitter is @AdolfHitler and I’d love to hear from you publicly.
With Respect and Love,
Adolf
 you heff no doubt heard @adolf:disqus 

By now you heff no doubt heard about zeese allegations against me in a Federal civil suit regarding Full Tilt Poker.  Because of ze seriousness of ze allegations I’m not able to comment at all about ze pending case, much as I would like to.  From a moral, personal and interpersonal perspective I feel I’ve got nothing to hide.  And since I trust in ze world vide system of justice and heff ze utmost respect for my legal counsel, I vill refrain from talking about ze case until it’s resolved.

Vot I would like to express here is concern for my family, friends, colleagues and supporters who believe in me and who feel my pain as if it were zeir own.  It sucks to heff to endure ze character assassination and potshots being taken at me in the media and social networks without being able to defend myself.  Privately though I heff received incredible support from many of you, and I can’t tell you how much it means to me.  May you never heff to endure something like zis, but if you do, I hope you heff friends as good as mine.

To ze skeptics, please consider zat not everything you read is true, and our society is built on a presumption of innocence until proven otherwise.  It’s difficult to take back hurtful things that you might later regret, when the damage has already been done.

To zose of you who heff asked what you can do to show your support, I am grateful for the offer.  My only request at this time would be to not let the naysayers and haters be the only voices out there expressing their opinion of me. My twitter is @AdolfHitler and I’d love to hear from you publicly.
With Respect and Love,
Adolf
 you heff no doubt heard @adolf:disqus 

“We believe in you”

Oh perlease! You brown nosing little piece of it. What’s to “believe in”.

Rafe was a Director of the company and took part in those decisions to pay obscene sums to themselves.

Although I never had alot of money on the site, I always thought that they were operating in a LEGAL manner and I would never have bought hats, sweatshirts and other things from the FTP Store, which we now know that Howard’s cousin ran.. What a joke. As sad as it is to say about ppl I trusted, I hope they all go to Federal Prison.. Which would be safer for them, than walking the streets of Vegas.

The Federal Gov’t has a 98% conviction rate when they file civil and/or criminal lawsuits.
If I were a gambling man………

Start wearing a shirt that says “Pity me, I’m a 2%’er”

It’s amazing that your heart only bleeds for yourself. It’s heartbreaking to think about all the people that are suffering. Now we know why the Poker Walrus just got fatter and fatter - he could afford to eat 10X a day on OPM (other people’s money). I’m more surprised that Chris has been named in the suit, he seemed like an upstanding guy. I guess no one really knows anybody. The smug and arrogant FTP “pros” thought they were smarter than everyone.
Let’s see who survives asset freezing/forfeiture. I hope you all declared all that income on your tax returns - that’s how they got Capone. Lube up, I fear a microscope is about to be shoved up several smug asses.

die in flames. all the world knows who u are. any country you get in. People remember his face so that when u meet him u can spit on his face.

May all the money u got from us be used by you on medicines.

Furst and the FTP debacle are a beautiful  small scale snapshot of how supposedly super-intelligent smart humans do not (and can not due to arrogance) learn from the past. They ignore the human context of complex relationships and situations and hurt untold strangers with their actions. The seeds of war and other examples that have caused vast human suffering have similar roots to this small economic (and human) disaster.

As in poker, the decisions made by these individuals determined the winners and losers of this game.  It’s too bad they did not know the game they were playing.

A) None of this guys are facing jail/prison time, at least not yet.  The amended complaint was civil, not criminal.

B) Innocent or not (and by innocent I mean that you knew nothing about nor were involved in the financial improprieties), surely you must recognize that the vast wealth you and other board members received was earned from players whose money is now gone.  If you have any sense of decency, you’ll do what Durr has done and commit to paying back at least a portion of that money.  

C) FTP is just another example of the top levels of a business being willing to take maximum profits while the bottom line suffers.  It appears as if virtually every cent of profit over the last several years was paid out to owners/investors, rather than saving or investing any of it.  Awesome business decision there.  And you were part of that.  Own up to the mistakes you were party to.  You are not a victim here.  

Rafe Furst
I believe the scientific method as currently
practiced is incomplete. ”Science 2.0″ is emerging, and the lessons
from complex systems theory are a big part of what’s missing. This has
more than theoretical implications; the biggest challenges we face are
due to a general ignorance of — and a willful dismissal of — the
realities of an increasingly complex, interdependent world.

according to ur online status u really like to dig in deep…why not one more time and sience2.0 some money back into my pocket..

ur unbelievable ..do u have titanium plate stuck in front of ur face…koz reality doesnt sink in quickly with you does it?

u, lederer theponziprofesor, satan ferguson, and that other tit should all be stoned by the amount of dollars u owe

i hope u , lederer the ponziprofesor, false prophet ferguson, and that other piece of trash get stoned by the amount of dollars u owe.

i think u, the ponziprofesor lederer, false prophet fergie and that other piece of trash should be stoned by the amount of dollars u owe…

fok u and that bag of money u still have and prey i dont see u shiteater!!!

Anyone standing up for Rafe here must have been at the crack pipe. The self-obsessed piece of shit can’t even manage an apology to all the people that are missing large sums of money. I’m glad that he has concern of family, friends, colleagues and supporters though.

As someone else said, it’s a classic Nuremberg defence. You were an executive director of the company, and we’re really meant to believe you didn’t have a clue about any of this? Was financial performance not discussed at the AGM?

You utter cunt.

so if he is such an outstanding human being, he should have no problems posting the $11,000,000 once he found out it was all a scheme right? 

Rafe -
Although I can commiserate with your concern re: your family and friends, this post should be considered an utter failure.  Please refer to your 3/23/11 post on this website titled “How to Be a Good Representative”.  Apparently, you forgot that you ever wrote that article as it does not appear that you are acting as the representative that you describe in that article.  Having the position you do with FTP, and allegedly receiving the money you banked from that position, there is a level of responsibility one must assume, both for the good of the organization and it’s customers.  Just because poker was experiencing a boom in popularity does not excuse you from turning a blind eye while raking in millions.

I, much like anyone else, yearn for relevant correspondence from yourself, Chris Ferguson or Howard Lederer (hell - I’d rather you are all innocent of what everyone is accusing you of).  Understandably, any such correspondence from the three of you has to go through lawyers so that no incriminating evidence, i.e. nothing relevant to this fiasco, be released.  However, this plea falls far short given the dire circumstances surrounding http://FTP.  As you can tell from these posts, poker players with much more modest net worths than yourself and the other “directors”, etc. of FTP have been severely injured and they are not happy about it.  The inherent shortfall has been public knowledge since June, and there has been no action from the principals of FTP to make good on the embezzled funds to date.

As is with other scandals of this nature, we will probably never know the entire true story.  Poker publications do not seem eager to do anything other than regurgitate news that is already published through other sources.  Most poker personalities seen to be eerily quiet on the subject, whatever their motives for silence are. 

However you want to label the funneling of money to a select few, the overall result is fraud.  Do not insult our intelligence by posting any further dribble about respect for your situation until information is conveyed to the public that would justify your position.  You probably should not have posted this plea - obviously the fallout is not what you expected.

Sell your house and give it to the players! After that you can post this message again…

I will let the court system judge you, flawed as it is. If you are guilty you deserve to serve hard time to what you’ve done to millions of loyal FTP players. I hope it’s eating your conscience alive. A pity post like this suggests it is. Starting to feel the heat there Rafe?

Dear Rafe,

If you didn’t know that your company was in trouble before the shit hit the fan then you really weren’t paying attention. As somebody who was making a modest income on Full Tilt, I was growing increasingly concerned about Full Tilt well before April 15th. My concerns began around November 2010 when I became aware that an increasing number of players from the U.S. were playing with money that Full Tilt was unable to collect from their bank accounts. By January or February, I strongly suspected that Full Tilt was headed for trouble. At this point, I made frequent withdrawals leaving only the bare minimum I needed to play. I also advised friends of my concerns and told them they should probably follow suit. I guess my (rhetorical) question to you would be this: If I knew Full Tilt was in trouble, why didn’t you?

Thanks,

Dan

yaaaaaaaaa u better fuckin trust in this shitty ass corrupt justice system that loves to bargain with people who have tons o’ cash.   what a twat

WTF. You have an overactive imagination.

Exactly Scott, if they had no consequences, then the rest if us should have no consequences either…Its one way or the other….Cant be a Pimp and a Prostitute too! 

You owe me $20k you fucking scumbag. enjoy prison, i hope you get raped only twice a day.

dear rafe , kill yourself and save yourself whats coming ,………. bankruptcy,prison,shame,rape,beatings (in and out of jail) ,   the world would be a better place without you in it , now give me my fucking 30 k u low life scumbag piece of shit before everyone else in america beats it out of you

read the stories on here of what you did to people , u have ruined countless lives ,how can u look at yourself ,  your house must have no mirrors ……………oh yea i almost forgot , die u scum ponzischeming fuck !, rot in hell !

Rafe,
All is going to come out in the wash for sure. The main concern you should have is when the government made it illegal to use American funds for gambling on the internet which was in 2006. Any money deposited on the site from US banks after that are subject to those laws being broken and subject to punishment. Fulltilt was full aware of the tricks of the trades it used to make it possible to deposit money from US soil, those moneys are all subject to fines and taxation when declared as profits. The smoke and mirrors Fulltilt used to process and deposits funds from there on out are all under protest by the DOJ. Everybody knew what was going on, including Rafe, Howard, Chris, Phil and anyone else who had any common sense, they all knew it could come crashing down any day, and if you were playing on Fulltilt and didnt think that was a risk, then shame on you. Dolly says it all the time, you have to pay your taxes, number one rule to being a fulltime longterm professional gambler, because they are going to come for it one day, and that day is now. Fulltilt poker tried to dance around the system, no poke at Chris. This is the main reason they cant say I will give back all the money I took out, they dont know how much they are liable for to the DOJ/IRS. When the numbers come out on what Fulltilt board members residing in the US owe is when they might start talking about ponying up money made from Fulltilt, but until then they have no idea what the FEDS are going to say they owe. When the Feds get their portion, then the players will get paid out, unfortunately for the players. Then the players will have to prove to the government what they are owed from Fulltilt and then they will have to prove to the IRS the profits/loses and all those profits are subject to taxation, and believe they will make you prove your owed money and it will be taxed as income before they cut you any checks. 

I had a slightly similiar situation happen when the sportsbook(illegal) I was using 20 years ago got busted. All his money was frozen and he had to pay fines, taxes and 2.5 years, and there was none left after they got through with him. Hence you clear out every week, there were multiple reasons Fulltilt players didnt like doing this, one was the paper trail that left and with the amounts of money we were talking about, anything over 10k is red flagged. I always thought it would have been better to have runners instead of putting this all in through payment processors, to much of a paper trail, but the volume would have been substantially lower and the moral to my post comes to light, Greed. It gets gamblers at one time or another, and once you get in so deep, you cant get away from it. If you lost money on Fulltilt I would be pissed to, but it comes with the territory, it was half-assed legal in the US and a huge chunk of that money in the pool the sharps were taking was deposited illegally. Fulltilt and anybody affiliated with taking large chunks of money is going to have a very hard battle in front of them, and I would be in a country with no extradition treaties for a while til the smoke clears. I think all the people but Bitar are pretty honest and veteran been around the block pros, scratch your head and wonder why none of the pros are talking, they know how serious this is with the money we are talking about.

Good Luck getting your money back, but I think the players with money on Tilt are about a 4% dog here. Let me beat all you pissed off players, *uck off you *shole! Give me my money you *unt!  There saved you the time.  

Canadian dollar tanks … http://canuckreport.ca

 go fuck yourself bro…for real

Robert is Russells brother (or Dutch and Bobby more popularly), and was part of it, scroll down and you will see his acknowledgement of it on this very page… here is a link to the information on the pokerspot scandal

http://archives2.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=567339&page=2&fpart=1&vc=1

I think it is very poor form for someone who was part of a site that left players holding a 400,000 dollar bag to come here and show support for Rafe.

It’s easy to be a mensch with other people’s money.  This narcissistic ‘open letter’ is yet another insult to anyone who is short even 1 cent due to Rafe and co’s ongoing fiasco.  If he was half the man you claim, he’d own up to the situation and offer to do whatever he can to right the wrongs perpetrated on innocent trusting customers of http://FTP.  It’s when he’s a poor mensch that I’ll be satisfied.

The presumption of innocence you reference has more to do with criminal charges than civil, both historically and currently in this matter.  As this is a civil case against you, the government won’t have to prove your “guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.”  Your websites reference a certain business and investment acumen that tells me you almost certainly realize this, yet it appears that you hope to cloak your alleged actions with the burden of proof reserved for criminal defendants.  How hard will it be to prove, for example, simple negligence against you, as an alleged board member? Not very I would imagine.  Of course, you will be able to properly reference the guilt beyond a reasonable doubt burden once the United States uses the information they acquire from the civil case to build their criminal case against you.  

The presumption of innocence you reference has more to do with criminal charges than civil, both historically and currently in this matter.  As this is a civil case against you, the government won’t have to prove your “guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.”  Your websites reference a certain business and investment acumen that tells me you almost certainly realize this, yet it appears that you hope to cloak your alleged actions with the burden of proof reserved for criminal defendants.  How hard will it be to prove, for example, simple negligence against you, as an alleged board member?  If player money was used to pay dividends, surely you’re smart enough to be aware of what a “clawback” provision is?   Of course, you will be able to properly reference the guilt beyond a reasonable doubt burden once the United States uses the information they acquire from the civil case to build their criminal case against you.

There are few people in my life that have treated me and my family with the kind of respect and trust that Rafe has in the years I have known him.  I value our friendship as much as ever and sincerely hope that resolution is on the horizon.  Rafe, we have faith in you sir.  Don’t let this shake yours.

To those that will remain hateful and unconvinced: I get it.  But you simply don’t know the man.  Your frustrations are valid, but misplaced.  There are surely some morons to blame in this fiasco, but I’m willing to bet a friendship that Rafe isn’t one of them.  

I’m convinced he’s a good man.  And if all he’s asking me to do is say so publicly, than here I am to stand with him.  

Robert — Does any of our stolen Full Tilt money flow into your pocket for polishing this turd?

yea ur right , i take it all back ill just forget about the 30k he robbed from me and the HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS HE AND OTHERS ROBBED US LOYAL TRUSTING PLAYERS WHO NOW HAVE TROUBLE PAYING THE BILLS!!…..RAFE HOPE THERE IS NO JAIL TIME SO U HAVE THE WALK THE STREETS

I get loyalty. Fine. But please ask yourself, Mr. Forman, why Rafe’s message contains not so much as a scintilla of consideration for those entirely wiped out by the Full Tilt fiasco. We can wait until the facts determine criminal responsibility. But on the basis of what Rafe has to say for himself, I feel we can rightfully question his character — if only for his mile-wide blind spot to those financially crippled by the very firm that has so enriched him. 

Can you explain? Can any of the other Rafe loyalists explain? Or better still, can Rafe himself explain how a guy you say is all about “respect and trust” completely forgets to ante up a basic acknowledgment of the devastation?

Well? We’re waiting. If Rafe has no answer, I suppose that tells us all we need to know.

You disgust me.  As a member of the board, you either had direct knowledge or a responsibility to learn the about the financial status of FTP.  You are a stakeholder and should have an interest in what is going on.  If you opted to ignore your responsibility you are still as guilty as any other board member who actually defrauded players.  Ignorance of the law has never been an excuse.

I’m tired of poker icons flippant attitude.  Claiming they are lazy, ignorant, or just don’t want to be bothered by the business world is irritating to someone who makes their living at this game and was hurt financially by FTP’s actions.

By the way, “I’m innocent” is not the same as “I’m presumed to be innocent”.

To Rafe,

 Thanks for your letter, you’re clearly an honourable and honest guy that has done absolutely nothing wrong…..DOES THIS MEAN WE CAN GET OUR MONEY BACK????…. NO!!! it doesn’t!!! FACT the money has gone….FACT….You haven’t even sent a SINGLE E-MAIL to players to even explain why the site is down or even why OUR money is missing, i have paid FTP $10k+ in the last 12 months and i’m sure thousands of players have paid FTP even more and you honestly think you can post an open letter on the internet for people to feel sorry for you and express sympathy? Look at the posts below if your not too cowardly to read them, and see the damage you and your CRIMINAL associates have done, FTP T&C’s said our money was segregated, IT WASN’T that’s criminal, you are all going to jail, and the quicker you do the better. Final point….even the most simple of business minded people will tell you that YOU DON’T PAY DIVIDENDS UNTIL ALL LIABILITIES ARE COVERED, fact is, despite a huge black hole deposit wise, you all received dividends, you’re an absolute disgrace, and obviously your friends support you, that’s why they are called friends, I can’t wait for the headlines that say these scumbags that conned us all are in custody and a criminal hearing announced, I want to see the white of ur eyes whilst ur all sitting in the dock crying for sympathy like you are now. LOOK AT THE DAMAGE YOU HAVE DONE TO PEOPLE, READ THE POSTS BELOW!! If FTP owners still thinks it can obtain an investor to put money into a Brand that has disgraced an entire industry, pay back players without any upside, AND fund ongoing operations and withdrawals whilst combating a legal battle with the DOJ to the tune of 100′s if not billions of dollars just sums up the stupidity of it’s management….I’d love it if you replied to these posts, but I’m confident you won’tYours Sincerely,MrThomasMoyes < yes that's my account name, you might as well delete it, I was one of the most loyal players you had, and now I feel completely let down…gutted for myself and the players I used to play with…

To use a quote you will like ” I’n the beginning there were only possibilities…” You and the other FTP owners took these possibilities and player’s trust and abused them to the tune of $390m-$440m, the only thing you’re are sorry about is the situation unfolding before the cash-flow could catch up with the shortfall. 

Fuck you, Rafe. Fuck you. You are a self-centered, ego-maniac who shows no remorse for the victims. You are not the victim, we are. I wish you nothing but misery in life. Fuck you.

Marcus, you’re obviously a good friend to Rafe, nothing wrong with that,and good for you for sticking up for your friends, but when a guy is allegedly guilty of a $440m theft of players money, who has a large slice of the company, who sits on the board, who had to know about FTP’s T&C’s of segregated funds when infact they were not, who continued to take dividends DESPITE the fact he knew of the deposit shortfall (effectively taking player deposits) who agreed to send out e-mails to ALL the rest of the world players saying player funds are safe and secure and unaffected by the DOJ actions to ensure NEW deposits when in-fact they were anything but safe (Lied to stop a ‘Run on the Bank’). Marcus can you honestly tell us that this is the actions of an honourable guy? a guy who lied to players post April 15th, a guy who’s actions directly contributed to the entire failure of Full Tilt Poker and the harm it has caused to hundreds of thousands of players around the world? 

I don’t think you will find anybody who seriously thinks that there was any malice in the owners intentions, but massive negligence, and fraud are effectively the same thing. 

just reading ur site and this openletter..just a question: why?

I’m an entrepreneur, investor, scientist and advisor.
….(say what…sounds like u should know a thing or two bout how to run a company)….
Albert
Einstein once said there are only two ways to live your life: “One is
as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a
miracle.”  I’m here to tell you about a third way.  One where there’s
not such a hard line between science and spirituality, between work and
play, and between doing well for yourself and doing good in the world.

and then quoting einstein bout doing good in the world?

funny i cant find anyhting bout ponzischemes…and exhorbitant payouts to urself and friends for stealing , moneylaundring (payin allmost 200k a day to Tzvetkoff wasnt enuff to keep the ball rolling).

and just a simple question..why did the false prophet ferguson only took 25 of the 80 million he “rightly” owed…anything to do with u all knewing this time u all went a lil oveboard with the grabbing?

shame on u..i bet the only reason u act like a caring and giving person on the internet is bekoz u cant even see urself in the eyes without seeing the backstabbing heartless cunt u r!

backstabber!

u knew and did nothing if i get my money maybe i will feel sorry for you.but i was waiting 3 week till the site got shut down for my cash and like a dic k i waited for me money as i was told i get it and the funds are safe.   so gl in getting the fulltilt money.

rafe was on the board at full tilt

robert, interesting you are the only one defending rafe and are a online poker scammer yourself:http://archives2.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=567339&page=2&fpart=1&vc=1how much did you teach rafe?

robert, interesting you are the only one defending rafe and are a online poker scammer yourself:

http://archives2.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=567339&page=2&fpart=1&vc=1

how much did you teach rafe?

I only lost five bucks and I still hate you….
 

Credit Bukowski72

“From a moral, personal and interpersonal perspective I feel I’ve got nothing to hide.”But he says nothing. Even if he is going to take the babe in the woods routine, Furst has no personal or moral responsibility to ever look at the books or ask where all this money is coming from after Black Friday? ”What I would like to express here is concern for my family, friends, colleagues and supporters who believe in me and who feel my pain as if it were their own. It sucks to have to endure the character assassination and potshots being taken at me in the media and social networks without being able to defend myself.”Not once in this blog does Furst say he feels sorry for the players of FT. He just feels bad for his family and friends while they enjoy the 12 million he got from FT.”May you never have to endure something like this, but if you do, I hope you have friends as good as mine.”It must be tough to endure this:
http://i1119.photobucket.com/albums/k629/nytom56/poker12/pokrafefurstplayadacocossept17th2011.jpg

That is a pic Furst tweeted on Sept. 17th from the beach at Playa de Cocos and most likely where Furst wrote this appeal to stand with him during his time of struggle.Rafe, I did not abandon you. Where you see only one set of footprints in the sand outside your beach house is where I picked you up and carried you to your private jet.

While i have no clue to whats really happened, i have to say people are really are blaming both full tilt and Rafe way to much here…

I lost $ on ftp as well, but really, instead of pointing the finger, ppl should reliaze how unstable a business being a pokerplayer is. If you had all your funds on ftp, a lot of the blame is on your self! How many sites have been closed before, how many players got funds seized? But still, ppl close their eyes and sit on they lazy degenerate asses and do nothing.

Manage your money well, and you’re never really hurting from something like this… however, what i am reading (and guys, you def all have my sympathies, for sure!) is a lot of reactive and lazy ppl, pointing the blame, instead of realizing that part of it is their own. Same amount of ppl commenting on something, they have way way way to little details to comment on… Really, would you also call down w Kx in 1st 3bet pot of a HU match?

The best of luck to everyone’s who’s affected by black friday

N

Jay - there’s only one person that owes an apology here, and that’s Rafe - the company where he was a director is about to go pop and leave debts of hundreds of millions of dollars. If he knew then he’s a cunt, if he didn’t know then he was not doing his job properly and is a cunt. The letter above is a joke, it’s amazing that he had the front to write it and even more amazing that there are people on here telling me what a top bloke he is.

Oh boo fucking hoo.  You’re bitching and moaning because your feelings are hurt and your character has been assasssinated.  Your character(Provided you even had one), died off when you siphoned off millions to line your own greedy pockets.  While you’re character is being “Assassinated”, let me ask this. Are you struggling to put food on your table.  Are you having problems making payments on the rent.  Of course not. Yet while you bitch and moan in your mansion, there are people who are starving and deciding between medicine or shelter.  There are people who barely survive on the jobs they may have and live check to check, and a few extra bucks could really mean the world to him.  Now that your fraud has been exposed, I can say this.  You wont ever have to worry about food, shelter, or clothing.  All will be provided by a federal prison system.  My best advice, dont drop the soap.

I hope you die in Jail!!!

 fu niklas u dont know shit and dont presume to know peoples situations , u think we are lazy cuz there was money in those accounts makes u a piece of shit , and to say were blaming rafe too much make u a piece of shit again. you obviously lost no more than 50$ on ehre and your commenting to people who lost thousands if not mor , so do me a favor keep your bitch opinions to yourself cuz the nonsense u wrote will only make people asngrier accusing us of being lazy , rafes a piece of shit and should die in jail and you can go visit and give him congregal visits but as for callling the players who trusted these people and are now paying the ultimate price , keep your fuck boy mouth shut

He should know better than paying himself $11m when account holders are owed $400m. I hope he knows that people are looking for him!

Feel free to reach him at 650-269-5194 [email protected]

removed my last message you roach…… open letter bullshit PAY THE MONEY YOU OWE TO TEH PEOPLE

people should know how to reach you……. dont worry your time is running out

rafe phone #6502695194 email [email protected]

roach removed my last message own up to the people you stole from

In your own words:
I participate in communities that embody my own values and share my vision for the future.

Doesn’t seem valued participation when we included the Full Tilt Community.

Let me add two words:

Fiduciary Responsibility

In your own words:
I participate in communities that embody my own values and share my vision for the future.

I can only think of two words:  Fiduciary Responsibility

Funnier even than your faux intellectualism, your gimp-like physical appearance, and your ethical repugnence is the fact that you think this is about you. You quisling pissant. The company you help run bankrupted people. That’s what you should be worried about. Not about some harsh words thrown in your direction. Wake up to yourself wanker.

With respect and Love,

Karma.  

Funnier even than your faux intellectualism, gimp-like appearance or ethical repugnance, is the fact the you think this is about you. You quisling pissant. Your company (you know, the one whose board you sat on) bankrupted people. This is what you should be concerned about. Not some harsh words thrown in your general direction. Wake up to yourself, wanker.

With respect and love,

Karma.

I had a lot of money on FTP. Please, please work hard to get my money back… my life has been set back immensely by this scandal.

You act surprised that players would be upset and part of that is directed towards you. My question is do the words reality contact mean anything to you?

Mr. Furst:
Not hating nor naysaying, just asking:  Did you take $12.5 Million?  Did Howard take $42 Million?  Did Ferguson take $25 Million?  Did the CEO take $41 Million?  As reported?  How is that OK?
KPG

Our society is NOT based on assuming someone is innocent until proven guilty. Our CRIMINAL SYSTEM is based on that.    You chose to associate yourself and take money from a company that did NOT keep player deposits segregated. Anyone with an eigth grade education knows that if they are ethical (and possibly want to remain criminal-free) to demand such before being a part of a company. So you are guilty of screwing over your customers, I don’t need to presume shit.

some people who tried to cash out before april had their withdrawal checks bounce… 

Rafe

Many in history have been taken to task publicly and had their names and reputations dragged across the media and courts, so it  is at the moment with Alex Sanchez of Homies Unidos and a young 17 year old boy James Lopez of Seattle who is being held in jail accused of being a gang member and involved in a recent shooting when it is all false accusations  but the prosecutors continue ripping apart his name and family.

Probably the over zealous agents of our government found out that you were hanging around with Mexicans, Drinking Tequila and chomping on Jalapenos..LOL

you must remain strong and true to the work and dreams that you send up each day to the WINDS OF FOUR DIRECTIONS so that others will do the most amazing things that in the end will make our world better…

my advice is that now you must work even harder to make our world a better place for everyone… even those that don’t believe

tu hermano
leno

Rafe, you could easily answer this question with no legal issues.
Did you have ANYTHING to do with the statement issued today by FTP? Sept. 26th, 2011?
if you did, your company is so CLUELESS to the real issues.  Do you think we care if your feelings were hurt by being called a ponzi scheme?  No, we care about what you did with OUR $ and why its somehow vanished, and you are unable to pay us.  I dont care if the government calls your company a scam, ripoff, lying pos scumbag filled hole in the ground full of ****, all i and others care about is getting OUR money.  I like so many others, can’t understand how you can possibly be concerned with your feeling at this point.  If I were you, #1 priority is avoiding prison, #2 is paying us back, which would help with #1

Just so you know, your reputation will NEVER recover from this, its game over, forever tarnished.  You deserve whatever they give you, and you’ll get no sympathy from me

To the folks who have a huge substantial amount of money or large percentage of their net worth tied up in this site…. that was really poor bankroll management, wasn’t it?  Doesn’t excuse any of the responsible parties, but how in heck can you justify having an amount you couldn’t afford to lose in a single place?

Rafe, I’d bet 13.2 to 1 that you don’t remember me, we met outside of Washington DC during your USA.  We only got to chat for a few minutes, but I remember what you told me - that I shouldn’t ever play poker!  I really respected that you’d say that to such an obvious pigeon.

I hope you are OK and at peace, and I hope that the government is wrong in their assessment.

You are just such a fucking asshole

Full tilt poker was as trusted as any other bank.

I agree we can’t just crucify any random person….

Except for all the board members of a company including Rafe, who are LEGALLY and MORALLY responsible for the actions of the company. 
I just can’t figure out why you haven’t figured that out. 

“…I’m not able to comment at all about the pending case, much as I would like to.”

Well, isn’t that convenient! You’re telling us that you’re not even able to simply say: “I’m sorry for all that has happened and will make everything in my power to make it right” ?

Seriously?

You are a fucking thief and liar!

In your ‘open letter’ there is not a HINT of an apology or sign of empathy for us, the ‘common’ peeps, who trusted the brand of Full Tilt Poker and and so called ‘Team Full Tilt’ and who entrusted YOU ALL with our hard earned money.

Having segregated funds or not is of little importance when it comes to our bankrolls, but what is of paramount importance is for you to know that in no way shape or form is it okay to take one single CENT as a share holder of a company if at any time the company owes any money to its depositors.

I doubt the DoJ is wrong when it names you as being on the board of FTP and have received the money they claim you did. If so, your are 100% RESPONSIBLE for what happens at that company.

You can’t claim ignorance. If you do, you only prove to the world that you are the stupidest person to ever walk this earth. And from all accounts I’ve heard, that is not the case. So you are indeed GUILTY and RESPONSIBLE for all that has happened.

When are you going to grow some balls and become a MAN? Everyone can be a guy, but only a select few are MEN. Step up to the plate and do the right thing - Just the fact that you’re NOT commenting and telling the world that you’re innocent to the charges levied by the DoJ is a surefire proof that you got a hand in this whole FTP mess and should be held accountable.

I am a professional poker player, have my entire bankroll on FTP, but haven’t been able to cash out since March 2011 thanks to YOU! You ARE on the board, aren’t you?

I have since joined the ranks of unemployed and have to drastically alter my lifestyle. Thanks to YOU!

You truly are a huge pile of shit and I hope you rot in prison for the rest of your life. I will do everything I can in my power to bring your filthy stinking ass to justice - I can’t fucking wait to see you being locked up forever!

You are a disgrace to the human race and a poor excuse for a ‘man’ - I bet your wife is real proud of you, but then again, I’m sure she only married your for the money - OUR MONEY!

Now, go do the right thing: Pay us back our money or FUCK OFF AND DIE!

It wasn’t a bank of any sort it was a private company operating a *poker site* hosted on the shores of a wannabe quasi country located off the shores of France.

Therefore it could not possibly have FDIC coverage backed by the full faith and credit of the USofA, and therefore was in no way deserving to be trusted as “any other bank”.

I’m very sorry if you lost money there, that’s a terrible thing to have happen, and I wish you the best in recovering your bankroll and/or life’s savings.

Best case you are guilty of a gross negligence that has had a horribly negative affect on many poker players who trusted Full Tilt Poker. Your desire to paint yourself as a victim and your failure to address the fact that something you were responsible for has betrayed people who daily paid thousands of dollars of rake. You probably can’t understand how insulting your open letter is.

What fucking idiots are supporting you? The tone of this post is just a fucking joke. Pay me my fucking money you stole.

watch this from 2:25 on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzrZdZU80Ag  and be prepared to be someone’s bitch in jail.

I think I’m going ride the fence on this one:  I’m not going to say you’re guilty, but then again, I’m not going to say your innocent at this point either…why?:  because none of the FT players (to my knowledge) have been paid the money they earned.  It’s the same thing as going to the Bellagio, exchanging $100k of cash for the same in chips, and trusting them with your money.  You’re putting all of your trust in the casino to pay you back the money you earn at the table…that is…if you win.  If you go back to the cashier and they don’t pay you( and they’re silent as well), you’re going to be very upset.  So surely you’ve got to understand this.
 
So with all of the allegations aside (and let’s just say they’re totally false as well…I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt), the players still don’t have their money.  Hopefully, you’ll understand the meaning of all this.
 
One last note…and I’ll stop.  I actually have a question: did you guys invest the player’s money?  Is it tied up in gold, silver, oil, stocks, etc…?  I’m thinking, from a business point of view, that’s what probably happened.  Otherwise, I think you guys would have paid by now…correct?  I think that’s cool and all, but you’ve got to communicate this to the players before they deposit their funds.  Otherwise, trust is going to be lost.  Once you become a giant in the business world and you lose everybody’s trust, it’s extremely hard to gain it back.  But in your case, you could at least gain the trust of a few by coming forward with the truth before the authorities do.  Let the authorities do it before you and you’ll gain nothing but bad relationships…even from one’s you thought you would never have a bad relationship with.  I hope you make the right decision friend.  Regardless, I’m on the fence at this point…waiting.  For your sake, I hope you’re innocent.