Excellent news!

http://www.compatiblepoker.com/poker-rumors/more-funds-on-the-way-to-full-tilt-poker-players/10136

Former players at Full Tilt Poker who made claims to get their funds back after the online casino room’s operations were shut down by the Department of Justice in 2011, were told that about $5.7 million would be paid out in the coming weeks.

The Director of the Poker Players Alliance, John Pappas said in a statement that one of his contacts at the Department Of Justice Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section had told him that a new wave of payments was to be made to players who were waiting for their frozen funds.

Pappas said that “it could still be a few weeks till it hits player bank accounts” however. The director added: “This next wave includes roughly 2,000 petitioners totaling $5.7 million in funds. These are petitioners with disputed funds, those with missing info, and those who they consider ‘new petitioners.'”

The payment has already been approved by the Department of Justice and the next step is to have the money transferred to the group responsible for the remission of the payment, the Garden City Group. The GCG will transfer the funds to the players’ bank accounts after a few final confirmation checks.

While this is good news for many Full Tilt Poker players, it should be remembered that another 3,800 cases remain unresolved – the majority from new petitioners who missed the deadline set by the Garden City Group to apply to have funds paid back.

In April 2011, the Department of Justice unsealed indictments against several online poker rooms, including Poker Stars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker, alleging that they used fraudulent methods to circumvent federal law such as the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, in order to offer their services to US poker players. At the time, the DOJ indicted 11 defendants and said that they had “concocted an elaborate criminal fraud scheme, alternately tricking some U.S. banks and effectively bribing others to ensure the continued flow of billions in illegal gambling profits. Moreover, as we allege, in their zeal to circumvent the gambling laws, the defendants also engaged in massive money laundering and bank fraud.”