A New York federal judge has dismissed a class action lawsuit brought against Full Tilt. U.S. District Judge Leonard B. Sand dismissed a civil Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) suit alleging that Full Tilt Poker and 10 individual defendants conspired to defraud company account holders of $150 million by freezing their accounts.
“It remains unclear whether the direct cause of the plaintiffs’ injuries was the decision by the U.S. Attorney’s office to temporarily shut down the Full Tilt poker website and seize the conmpany’s assets,” Sand said, “or was instead as plaintiffs’ conversion allegations suggest, the subsequent decision by one or more of the defendants to halt player withdrawals.”
The lawsuit was filed last June by Full Tilt poker players seeking to regain as a group, about $150 million they claim they lost when the online poker site and three others like it were shut by the Unites States Department of Justice in New York.
The shutdown date, April 15, 2011, became better known as in the poker world as “Black Friday.” Federal prosecutors accused the sites in criminal cases of violating laws barring online gambling. Judge Leonard B. Sand said in his ruling yesterday rejecting the players’ racketeering claims as “too attenuated” to proceed.
