Absolute Poker Reaches Agreement with U.S. Department of Justice

May 10 2011, Elaine Chaivarlis

It was announced Tuesday that Absolute Poker, including UB, has reached an agreement with the United States Department of Justice. The statement is in regards to the online poker indictments filed by the U.S. DOJ on April, 15.

The U.S. Attorney's Office has agreed to "provide all necessary assurances that third parties may work with Absolute Poker to facilitate the return of funds, currently held by third party processors, to players located in the U.S."

The Southern District of New York has also been notified that Absolute Poker has closed U.S.-facing operations and has cut off real-money play in the United States. The agreement reached on Tuesday with Absolute Poker and the U.S. DOJ does not include the the return of the three domain names that were seized in the initial indictments. Absolute Poker has not requested the return of them either. The agreement does however provide a monitor, approved by the U.S. Attorney's Office, to ensure that the company is complying with the terms of the agreement.

According to the press release, "Absolute Poker’s top priority has always been, and remains, the refund of account balances to its U.S. players. Unfortunately, the Company still faces several legal issues which must be navigated before funds can be paid out to US players. The Company’s US attorneys, Blank Rome LLP, continue to work diligently to resolve these issues, which is a necessary further step to facilitate the return of funds to players. Player funds, therefore, will not become immediately available for withdrawal as a result of today’s agreement with the DOJ."

A company spokesperson said, “Today’s signing of the agreement with the DOJ is an important step towards the safe and efficient return of funds to our US players. We can now move as expeditiously as possible to collect player monies from third party processors as a prelude to establishing proper mechanisms for the return of funds to our US players. As previously announced, we have already taken specific actions to exit the US market by closing our US-facing operations. Blank Rome LLP will continue to engage in discussions with the SDNY in order to complete the necessary agreements for the final transfer of balances to our US players. This remains our highest priority. We will continue to update our players and the poker community, as we move forward to resolve outstanding issues.”

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