The latest round of payments to former Full Tilt Poker players in the United States has been announced. Garden City Group, the claims administrator for the US Department of Justice, updated its website on May 28 to reveal the new remissions.
There will be approximately 3,500 payments distributed in this round, which should take place in the middle of June 2014. A total of $15 million will be paid via ACH transfers to bank accounts registered by the petitioners.
The approved payments in this round will be made to affiliates who submitted petitions and confirmed their Full Tilt Poker balances, as well as those who previously submitted incomplete or late petitions. The Department of Justice Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section of the DOJ has given the go-ahead for the process to begin.
What Petitioners Should Expect
Petitioners expecting to be included in this round of remissions may see a zero-dollar transaction on their bank account statements, which is a test by Garden City Group before the issuance of the actual payments. Some banks show this zero-dollar matter to their customers, and others may not.
Anyone who has a debt that is registered with the Treasury Offset Program by the government may see their balance reduced by a part of entirety of that amount in order to satisfy the debt. If that is the case, the petitioners will receive a notice prior to the payment, and it must be completed and submitted to receive any portion of the Full Tilt Poker balance.
Pertinent updates will be posted on the Full Tilt Poker Claims website.
Where the Claims Process Stands
The process of repaying former Full Tilt Poker players from the United States has been a long and daunting one for players. However, the Garden City Group seems to be on somewhat of a roll with processing the petitions at this point.
The first round of payments was completed on February 28 and included approximately $76 million for 27,500 people. The second round (still considered part of the first wave of payments) happened on April 1 for those who originally submitted incorrect banking information with their petitions. There were about 2,200 people paid nearly $5 million at that time.
This round of payments takes care of most of the original petitioners who did not have disputed balances, and it is the first time that affiliates will be paid.
Months of debate preceded the decision to pay affiliates, though their balances were required to include deductions of all payments to those accounts that were labeled as affiliate payments, meaning only their deposits and winnings from Full Tilt Poker will be paid. Rakeback will also be included in their payments.
Garden City Group has yet to reveal who may be in the next distribution wave. Players who represented Full Tilt Poker as Red Pros have yet to be paid, and there are numerous people with disputed balances and other errors in reporting that must be settled.
