Ultimate Bet superuser scandal "victims" bring complaint for damages
Complaint against Excapsa software and 10 John Does makes accusations of multi-million dollar theft.
Eight poker players claiming to have lost US$2m as a consequence of the UltimateBet (UB) superuser scandal have brought a complaint for damages against Excapsa, the software company behind the operator until 2006.
Plaintiffs based in the United States, Canada and Peru, including professional poker players Brad Booth, Tom Koral and Dustin Woolf, who each have more than US$750,000 in live poker earnings, claim to have been “cheated at UltimateBet.com”. They seek punitive damages of $10m in addition to further undetermined compensation.
The eight charges they have brought against Excapsa and 10 John Does, described as a combination of “holding companies, licensing entities, marketing companies, software firms and individuals” involved in the operation of and software provision for UB, are:
Violation of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organisations (RICO) Act; Conspiracy to violate the RICO Act; conversion; interference with prospective economic advantage; intentional infliction of emotional distress; Unfair competition and fraudulent business practice; fraud, and negligence.
The complaint relates to several years of activity between June 2003 and January 2008, during which time the plaintiffs allege that “Excapsa/UltimteBet [sic] did conspire to and did direct, effect and permit the theft of over $2,000,000 held in plaintiffs’ online poker accounts at UltimateBet.com.
UltimateBet merged with Absolute Poker in November 2008 to form the Cereus network, now owned by Blanca Games, following investigations earlier that year by the Kahnawake Gaming Commission (KGC) that identified former World Series of Poker champion Russ Hamilton as the principal figure behind the cheating incidents.
Hamilton is among those “suspected” by the plaintiffs to be among the as-yet-unidentified John Does, along with “Some of the founders and management of UltimateBet and Excapsa, including Greg Pierson, Jon Karl [and] Jack Bates.”
The 42-page complaint makes reference to the uncovering of the cheating by poker community Two Plus Two, citing graphs detailing abnormal win rates consistent with cheating which were taken into account in the ultimate KGC investigation in 2008.
It also cites a 2009 press release from UltimateBet owner Tokwiro Enterprises alleging that “ following an internal investigation “ certain player accounts tied to “Individuals [who had] worked for the previous ownership of UltimateBet” had gained “an unfair advantage”.
Filed on 13 January, the complaint is signed by the plaintiffs’ attorney Alan Engle of California-based firm Meador & Engle. In addition to the damages, it seeks a jury trial for those concerned “of all issues so triable under the law.”
Meanwhile Absolute Poker was recently hit with a complaint for NOK180m (£19.5m) from the Norwegian tax agency Skatteetaten. The company’s Norwegian debt holder Madeira Fjord had recently filed for bankruptcy when Blanca Games ceased payments to it following Black Friday, and according to tax website TaxableTalk “The tax agency accuses Absolute Poker of running 430m Kroner of business through a now bankrupt alleged Norwegian subsidiary, Madeira Fjord, and owing Norway’s Value Added Tax.”