Just Conjecturin', Volume 39: The Leaked 'Russ Hamilton' Records

General update time here at the JC corral, where work continues apace. As a lot of you faithful readers have figured out, we've pushed the book back a ways from its planned late-2011 release, in large part because important news keeps happening and new sources keep coming forward. There's been a flurry of both just in the last six or eight weeks, from Brent Beckley surrendering to DOJ officials on the AP side to the new civil lawsuit filed against Excapsa and a pile of as-yet-unnamed John Does, whoch is directed more at the old UB.

I keep interviewing and writing and meshing different tales against one other, and with each passing day the proverbial "complete picture" becomes a little more clear. I'm really glad we didn't try to put out a rushed version of the book in time for the holidays, even if that is a disappointment for those of you want the whole story right now. I get it, I really do. Still, the emergence of the story takes time, just as I always said it would.

One expected problem of late was a recent hard-drive failure which cost me a pretty penny to repair, because it occurred just a couple of days after having received information connected to that massive UB/AP data leak several weeks back. While I had most of the data backed up already, I was temporarily without a few key pieces, though those have now also been restored. Sorry to disappoint anyone who would have hoped my data was gone for good.

I've received another series of even more important UB files from a second source, but the leaked AP/UB files do contain many entries with information worth knowing. For instance, what happens if you look for accounts connected with "Russ Hamilton" or "Russell Hamilton"?

Excluding a couple of unfortunate folks who were born with the same name but were unconnected with the R. Hamilton widely known within the poker world, a search of the leaked files provides some interesting hits. Here's one such:

Russ Hamilton United States tu@vwx.com 4668866 ##158476 11/24/2008 22:24 UltimateBet 133140 0 7035.4 0 11/24/2008 22:24 UltimateBet.Com 7035.4 Blacklist User 299 Male 14872 9/16/2003 0:00 Affiliate Chernihiv Obla Ukraine Y 0 0 0

This is the complete record for one Russ account that was used in the cheating, though it appears to have had much of its data munged after the fact by the bosses at Absolute Poker. Hamilton's real e-mail addy was wiped and replaced with "tu@vwx.com", the "#158476" was written over the screen-name field, hiding its original name, but the "Blacklist User" status was... correct.

The "11/24/2008" date seems to be a last-account-activity date, and I'd believe that, too, though a deeper look reveals that some large batch processes were done around this time. But for which cheating account this name was changed we may never know, since this comes from files transferred over to AP and then moved into the wilds of black-hat marketing by former Costa Rican workers jilted by their former Absolute Poker bosses. One of the "0" entries corresponds to the real-money entries, too; there were no funds left in this account as of 2011.

(By the way, that "Chernihiv Obla, Ukraine" crap is part of what appears to be a separate corporate scheme to defraud electronic payment processors into handling payments to and from US players. ALL US players have a similar entry in a series of extra records serving no other purpose.)

Russ's wife Carolyn's "SLOOP" account was also blacklisted, though it was left more or less intact, including a Las Vegas address already tied to the scandal in certain other records published a couple of years back. Yet Carolyn Hamilton has no known connection to the actual cheating herself, and whether or not this account was used for any transfer activity is no more than open conjecture.

But more on Russ. There should be no doubt that the "-RUSSH-" account was his:

Russ hamilton United States transfers@ultimatebet.com (a real Russ H. address) 6217835 -RUSSH- 7/2/1949 las vegas NV 89134 11/24/2008 23:43 UltimateBet 100000 0 3.31 0 11/24/2008 23:43 UltimateBet.Com 3.31 Blacklist User 299 Male 14872 Affiliate Batna Algeria Y NV 0 0 0

No money in this account, either. But the "7/2/1949" entry seems to be Hamilton's real date of birth, although it differs slightly from the DOB data in the next account, and this account was apparently blacklisted along with the other one. The "6217835" was the account number after new account numbers were reassigned on the Cereus platform; neither it nor the other entries are the original UB account numbers.

And then there's this record, which to me is the funniest of all:

Russ Hamilton United States (real RH e-mail) (another real RH address) 02/22/1947 Las Vegas NV 7450438 APS POTRIPPER 80231 65.80.29.91 11/25/2008 0:35 8500 0 (real phone number) 0 0 11/25/2008 0:35 UltimateBet.Com Blacklist User 299 Male Other Madrid Spain Y NV 0 0 0

Another blacklisted account. A 1947 DOB instead of 1949, and a thank-you to whichever reader first verifies which one is real. However, the real hilarity is that this account's original screen name was overlaid with the entry "APS POTRIPPER". Why that, of all things?

There's only one real logical answer. It's because these originated from Cereus Network-era files, and the AP bosses had to know that common customer-service employees would be curious enough to enter "Russ Hamilton" into their consoles to see what turned up. These AP executives' efforts to cover their own tracks were ongoing, and if they could get some non-thinking workers to believe the lies that "Potripper" was AJ Green or anyone else but Scott Tom, so much the better.

But Russ Hamilton as Absolute Poker's POTRIPPER? Don't you believe it.

Just Conjecturin', Voulme 38: The Sad Case of the UB Data Leaks

Those of you paying attention in recent days have probably been aware of the leaking of approximately 3.5 million names' worth of data from the UB customer databases in recent days, for purposes uncertain but probably connected to the sale of the data for spamming use. The data may have been viewable by the public for as long as two weeks, but only in the last 48 hours or so was its public existence known.

The bad news is that the data was legitimate (although very messy); the good news is that as of earlier today, the business hosting the site finally got around to taking the site offline. The URL of the site won't be published here, and I hope those others that necessarily had access to the site in the course of determining the data authenticity and in getting the site shut down also continue to refrain from publishing it. The reason is simple: While the vast majority of the data on the site was stored in .xls or .csv spreadsheet files, there were a small handful of .txt files that may have been spidered during the time the site's contents were public. Those files, based on my own examination, contained either only e-mail addresses or e-mail addresses plus the related real-life names.

That's still too much. Elsewhere on the now-defunct site there were a handful of spamming tools and the log-in page for a low-end mass-mailing app, sure sign that this was some spammer-wannabe attempts at doing business gone awry.

What data was included? It depended on which file you looked at, but a generalized sampling from a typical file might have supplied the following:

First Name
Last Name
Country
E-mail Address
IP Address (probably from where and when the acct was registered)

7-Digit Account Number (see notes below)
Screen Name
Street Address 1
Street Address 2
Date of Birth

City
State
Zip Code
Account Creation Date (see notes below)
(2) seldom-used fields which I believe were used to help flag internal accts; these were blank for about 99% of players

Referral Code (censored, see notes below)
Play Chip Balance (?)
Unknown Field (small whole-number or zero entry for most players)
Phone Number 1
Phone Number 2 (in almost all instances, merely duplicates Phone Number 1)

Real Money Balance 1
Unknown Field (has a non-zero balance only for selected players; it may be a Tournament$ field or something similar)
Account Creation Date (duplicate field)
Original Skin (this is "UltimateBet.com" for all accounts)

Real Money Balance 2(?) (almost but not always equal to RMB 1)
VIP Account Status (i.e.: Bronze VIP)
(2) fields appearing to be connected to bonus balances
(Probable) Affiliate ID Code -- set to "299" for most old UltimateBet.com accts.
Gender

VIP Points Balance
Time Value, Unknown Purpose (value = minutes/seconds, only shown for a few percent of accounts)
Date Stamp, Unknown Purpose (seems to be a last-logon date, but it's only present for a small percantage of accounts.)
Affiliate/Direct Sign-Up (values are "Affiliate" or "Other")

Then comes a handful of fields of unknown use, excepting one largish field where each player's approved deposit methods are listed, in string form. Here's an example of the entries:



An associated field seems to represent the customer-service worker or supervisor who approved new methods of deposit.

The fields with the "see notes below" need a bit of explanation. There is a strong indication that a lot of the old UltimateBet accounts were rolled over to the new AP/Cereus system en masse, and when that was done, the old UB accounts would have needed new account numbers, so as not to duplicate existing AP accounts. These numbers correspond well to screen names listed in alphabetical order, and the account date creation is also connected, since thousands and thousands of these bear the same dates in November of 2008. It bears all the marks of a batch rollover between the two sites, when they finally merged.

Taken as a whole, the above list represents a ton of info, but the silver lining here is that no password fields seem to be present -- not that there's any reasonable expectation of players ever being able to log in and cash out their Cereus balances anyway. Noah at S:D reported finding what may be hashed (encoded) passwords attached to a small number of accounts in some of the other files, but I haven't found anything yet. I also haven't yet identified anything that I can say for certain is an Absolute Poker account (as opposed to an UltimateBet/UB.com one), despite Todd Witteles' claims, but there's a lot of data here and Todd hasn't shared with anyone yet the specifics of why he believes AP accounts were included.

I will update this post if I find anything more of extreme interest. And yet... there's a reason not only for this post, but for adding it to the "Just Conjecturin'" library.

As I've posted elsewhere, I was able to determine that these files were legitimate because I was able to compare them against other files I've already obtained. People on the forums are acting shocked that these files were out there, but I was already aware that there was mass grab of information in the form of these datafiles done by IDS employees in the last year or so.

One of these other files was already leaked to me, containing the first tens of thousands of accounts ever created at UltimateBet, and it's been of immense value in helping piece together some of the early relationships at UltimateBet and parent company ieLogic.

No, I will not make that file public. Don't even ask.

The thing was, I've known for months that these player files were being pirated around, spirited out of the IDS corporate offices by disgruntled workers, though I'd hear about it second- or third- or fourth-hand. This latest batch of files literally screams "customer service," offering exactly the mix of account info necessary for a call-center or chat-line worker to be able to process an accountholder's typical range of inquiries.

The surprise to me is that people think this is something new, when I already assumed the worst: When AP went belly-up for all real purpose, and stiffed its workers in the process, stuff like this was guaranteed to happen. I've also had little doubt that the AP and UB customer-data files have already been sold off in more traditional manners, time and again, and are a source of at least some of the casino spam which plagues millions of in-boxes on the web. It is what it is.

Most players are just commodities to the online sites. That's the real why and how of it. Your data is secure as long as the site rakes in money, but once the squeeze comes, all bets are off, and anything that can be grabbed and sold is usually fair game.

To those concerned about what information is out there, I understand the problem. I don't like having my phone number out there in these files, nor some of the other information, but there's precious little any of us can do about it. That it is still being trafficked and sold without our permission is inevitable, because that's what info traffickers do.

Just Conjecturin', Volume 37: The Clown Prince, err, Chairman of the Board

Time to return to the tales of AP and UB with a lighthearted look at one of the more public (and kinda pathetic) persons of the whole AP affair, one Philip Scott Tom. He's Scott Tom's daddy, and he figures in a whole bunch of entertaining stories, some directly connected to the cheating at Absolute Poker, and others not so much.

Phil Tom, as he's more commonly known, is quite the star unto himself, if you get my drift. As I hinted in a Twitter post a short while back, he might be capable of giving Doug "Toolbox" Lee a run for top toolbox honors, if Lee hasn't all but retired that honor years back.

While I'm saving some of the more serious Phil Tom stuff for the book, let's all share a moment or two and savor the man's self-aggrandizement. This is man who was the self-styled "Chairman of the Board" at Absolute Poker, and he indeed held that title, though he was wholly unsuited to the task: his alleged job duties amounted to showing up once a year to chair AP's annual board meeting, and then spending all the money that came his way.

One of the tapes I have includes a pointed conversation between AP shareholders and management bemoaning Phil Tom's negative effect on other AP executives' ongoing efforts to attract new investors, with the complaints generally categorized as having to work around a drunken Phil Tom always showing up at meetings with a hooker hanging on his arm. One need look no further than Tom's Facebook page to get a feel for his party-hardy lifestyle, and paying for it was always a big concern. Said one Vegas veteran to me, "Phil Tom is the greediest person I've ever met."

I can't vouch for that from personal knowledge, but there's plenty of evidence he's one of the most vain. Phil's way, way proud of his WSOP bracelet win, enough to have launched a site immortalizing it at thechairmanofpoker.com. Yep, that's the nickname ol' man Tom has chosen for himself.

Tom's got himself a nice sister site, which appears at lakeshoreopen.com, and details a bit of what he's done with his upscale Vegas home in the Scotch 80s neighborhood, which is kind of across I-15 from the Sahara. Ignoring the pool and the basketball court and all the other stuff paid for with AP money, Tom's love of golf led him to create something of a mini-golf course around his home, though one that uses real wedges and golf balls, wielded judiciously. You can read all about it here.

Now, about that "Chairman" thing. Seems the old Casa Tom used to boast a whole lot of giant AP logos, so all visitors to the place could be impressed at how Chairman Phil made all his money through this up-and-coming Absolute poker site, which was likely the fastest-growing US-facing site in percentage terms from 2004-06. Not due to Phil's contributions, of course, but in spite of them, according to other insiders. Phil was so proud of that diamond-shaped "AP" logo that he wanted to make it an endemic, instantly recognizable photo -- even without the "AP" letters on the inside. But using it with the "AP" was still good, and so he did, in several spots inside Casa Tom, and in big bold paint on the basketball court, which you can see in this historical photo from Google Earth archives, circa 2006. (Hint: Look at the lane on the west end of the court.):



Now the same shot, from a 2007 Google Earth satellite overpass, perhaps the same one Tom uses on the left side of his own LakeShore Golf page:



Look ma, no AP diamond. The big "AP" was painted over some time in late 2006 or early 2007, probably just after the UIGEA became law. Few people understood in 2006 that satellite photos are a bit like tattoos. They'll be around forever, so Phil Tom painting over the logo is understandable, if fruitless and more than a bit funny. It's even thinly possible that Phil's college friend and one-time housemate, Brian Coffey (who worked in home improvement) could have wielded the brush.

But more vain, more funny, is that Phil Tom is still today trying to create this "Chairman of Poker" persona while trying to cover up and destroy the very same AP history that might have given credence to the handle. That's not only chutzpah, but a cheap brand of chutzpah that you buy off the Wal-Mart shelves. His site shows a copyright date of 2010-2011, and one wonders what content he's trying to protect by his disclaimer at the bottom. All that stuff originated on other sites; it's not his, even if he's unlikely to get much heat from the rightful owners.

Phil Tom's connection to the story has more to do with an exploration of where the money went. Way back in 2007, during the height of the first wave of known AP cheating, there was a blatant transfer of $10,000 from the "graycat" account to Phil Tom. Odd thing: the Graycat account was Phil's, even though Scott was controlling it as part of his cheating and laundering of funds. And yet the $10K transfer to Phil stands unedited in the history:



Said one AP exec, when shown the transfer evidence: "Phil Tom was never an affiliate. That's pure graft."

Referring to yourself as the Chairman of Poker? That's a lot of chutzpah, indeed.

Book Update

No time like the present! And the present has been very, very busy. Folks have been wondering about the lack of posts here, but, not to worry -- work on the book proceeds apace. The majority of the book is in the tank, and we're working on the final chapters and the editing. If anything, it's turned into an even more complex and detailed story, and it's important to me and to everyone involved to get the tale right. There are so many subplots that at times it's like the old baseball saying: You can't tell the players without a scorecard. The complexity of the issues requires handling with the proverbial fine-toothed comb. As they say, it is what it is.

I'll also be venturing to Reno in a week or so for a working vacation, lugging along the laptop while I partake in other stuff as well. I'll be there starting next Tuesday the 27th and spending eight days. There's a couple or three Nevada contacts that might get a call while I'm out there, too, and if the timing is just right, I might rent a car and sneak down to Vegas to do an interview or two.

So hang in there, everyone. There's a great tale coming. I've come into possession of hours of secret tapes and documents never before published, and a lot of that will work its way into the open as well. Once we have a complete picture of what all will be included in the book's pages, then more supplemental items will once again be appearing here.

Geez, Just When I Thought the Poker Spam was Slowing Down

FROM: MR RAYED BITARIUS.
The Manager,Audit/Account Section
Full Tiltican Development Bank.(F.T.D.B.)
Ouagadougou Burkina-Faso.


Dear Friend of Full Tilt,


How are you today? Hope all is well. Please be informed that I have decided to contact you for a fund transfer transaction worth the sum of US$ 9,300,000.00 into your reliable Full Tilt account as the sole NEXT-OF-RAIL to the foreign deceased customer of our site (an International Billionaire French Businessman not named Cyril) who was killed with his entire family by NETTELLER-TROJAN in the shadow of the Las Vegas Sands at most 5 years ago. Since his death occured, no body have show up as his next of kin for the claim because the account is undonkable. Upon the investigation I carried out from his records, I found out that his foreign business make-up recipient who would have trace the account died earlier before the deceased. Therefore, this is a confidential and sealed deal. Even Cardrunners don't know about it.

For the success of this transaction, you should apply and act as the only existing NEXT-OF-RAIL to the deceased which our crack customer-service team will replace by 2013 the deceased account information through proper documentation in position of your own Full Tilt account. This transaction is risk-free, it will never harm your good reputation in your poker society because no one can trace the account, and on the instant of the transfer of the fund into your Full Tilt account, the chapter of this transaction will be closed entirely.

Note that in a business of this nature, the bank dont want to know your difference between the deceased country or Full Tilt avatar or Rush fondness because our avatar inheritance law is against that. So, it is a preference for us achieve this success without any problem.

Please note down that once the fund get transferred into your Full Tilt account, you will take 39% of the total sum while the rest will be for me as I will arrange myself a new clever-sounding site such as Rekop, Inc.

I need your urgent response and include your private telephone/mobile numbers/account names for easy communication and a freeroll entry. Please reply if you can be trusted in this deal.

Thanks,

Mr Rayed Bitarius

Just Conjecturin', Volume 36: More Norwegian Exposure

To clarify a couple of things for readers, the short piece on the corporate shenanigans of Absolute Poker appearing in the online Sunday version of Dagens Naeringsliv (dn.no) is not the major nuclear bomb against AP ownership that I referenced last time out. To view the longer and more important piece in its original entirety, you need to click on that link within the story linked above and fork over a kroner or three to DN. That longer piece appeared on Saturday and is the one really worth checking out.

A bit of backstory: DN reporters Goran Skallmo and Knut Like learned about a secret AP/Madeira Fjord board meeting being held in Toronto, and flew there to capture as much of the action as they could. In addition to a quote or two from the meeting's participants (perhaps captured unknowingly), the DN investigators also grabbed a handful of neat photos showing certain AP execs running around the office as this meeting was going on.

I have a couple of pretty good translations of the piece at this point, but for copyright reasons I can't do much more than offer brief excerpts here and there, though Goran has consented to allow me to run some of the pictures here. One of the key aspects of the DN piece is that a couple of Norwegian lawyers for the Norwegian law firm Bull & Co., particularly one Bjorn Blix, are now feeling some heat. From the piece:

Attorney Bjorn Blix rushes through the reception at the law firm of Bull & Co. During Madeira Fjords general shareholder meeting, he had refused to answer how much he and Bull & Co. has been paid by Madeira Fjord since 2008. There are millions. And officially Madeira Fjord has the no money. Then who pays Bull & Co.?

DN has been given access to informaton [that] shows that Bjorn Blix bills Madeira Fjord 3000 kroner per hour. Last fall Bull & Co. billed Madeira Fjord 550,000 dollars for one and a half months work. The payments came from several different banks in the U.S., Blix explains.

- Have Madeira Fjord accounts in the U.S.?
- No, no.
- But the transfer must show who the sender is?
- No, it does not, said Blix.
- So you simply do not know who has paid you for the assignment?
- No, says Blix and goes his way.

Lawyers are required to follow strict money laundering rules when they receive money from clients. They are supposed to know where the money comes from.

-- DN.no

My educated prediction: More lawyers than Blix are about to be swatted.

Ah, well, on to a couple of photos. The first here is a shot of the frat boys outside their U of Montana Sigma Alpha Epsilon house, circa 2002. The unblurred faces, in order, are Scott Tom, Hilt Tatum IV, Brent Beckley and Garin Gustafson. Click on it for a larger view:



The second is a shot of chairman Ron Janusz, who doesn't own a lot of stock, per se, but is a long time friend of primary fundraiser Hilt Tatum III ("Hilt Sr.") and has served as a willing frontman for the company of late. I've heard his voice before, but had yet to match up the face:



(Both photos courtesy Goran Skallmo.)

If you visit the detailed piece, it's apparent that the DN investigators literally shot some of these photos through eyeholes and slightly-ajar doors. Continuing kudos to Goran and his crew for revealing this important information regarding AP.

* * * * *

Update: An anonymous poster (see comments) claims that the person on the far right in the frat-house photo above isn't Garin Gustafson. Without the original it's hard to say for sure, though there's a tiny chance that the photo might be available in a University of Montana yearbook circa 2001 or 2002.

If it's indeed not Gustafson, as I believe it was identified to DN reporter Skaalmo and his crew, then the likeliest person for it to be is Shane Blackford, a rich trust-fund baby and fellow frat brother who was another of the original founders. Blackford also served a very recent turn as an executive board member.

Here's a blown-up version of the face on the right, along with those infamous wedding photos which included both Gustafson and Blackford:


(above)


Gustafson


Blackford

It still looks like Gustafson to me, though I suppose I could be argued the other way. Anyone have the original?

Announcing the Book

Dimat Enterprises, Inc. is pleased to announce the signing of Haley Hintze to author a book covering the UltimateBet and Absolute Poker online cheating scandal. The as-yet-untitled book will be released in the Fall of 2011.

Haley Hintze is a veteran writer/editor with decades of published writing credits, and at one time served as Editor-in-Chief of PokerNews.com. She reported on the Absolute Poker and UltimateBet cheating scandals for several sites, and has continued her independent investigation at her own blog, http://haleyspokerblog.blogspot.com.

Hintze has assembled a deep library of documents including e-mails, taped conversations, and whistleblower interviews, which detail the inside secrets and cover-ups of these ongoing scandals – much of which has yet to be released to the public. This story will show the corrupt, shady dealings of two major online poker rooms – which later joined as one -- and how they did everything they could to prevent the true stories of the cheating from reaching the poker-playing public.

Dimat Enterprises, Inc. is one of the most popular poker publication companies in the world with titles that include The Poker Mindset by Ian Taylor and Matthew Hilger, the Winning Poker Tournaments One at a Time series by Eric "Rizen" Lynch, Jon "PearlJammer" Turner, and Jon "Apestyles" Van Fleet, the Advanced Pot-Limit Omaha series by Jeff Hwang, Small Stakes No-Limit Hold’em by Ed Miller, Sunny Mehta, and Matt Flynn, and others. Dimat’s next release, The Math of Hold’em by Collin Moshman and Douglas Zare will be released in late May.

------------------------------------------------------------

About Dimat Enterprises, Inc.

Dimat Enterprises, Inc. is a publishing company founded by Matthew Hilger in 2003 and specializes in poker strategy and content. Along with the poker books above, Dimat Enterprises, Inc. has several new releases planned for later this year including Winning Poker Tournaments One Hand at a Time Volume III and Tournament Endgame Strategy. Any authors interested in being published may contact Matthew at pokerbooks.InternetTexasHoldem.com.

Dimat Online, Inc, also owned by Matthew, operates multiple popular poker related websites focusing on online poker tournament player rankings, poker blogs and texas holdem strategy / community, (www.InternetTexasHoldem.com ) aka "ITH". ITH is also the home of the original Free Poker Gift Offer. By using the ITH Poker Stars bonus, Party Poker Bonus, or Full Tilt Poker bonus, players can receive Dimat publications for free, including other poker books, DVDs, and poker chips.

* * * * * *

I'd like to thank Matthew for offering me the opportunity to craft a single, comprehensive tale of the UltimateBet and Absolute Poker scandals, even as events connected to these continue to surprise us nearly every day. There will be at least one dedicated thread for book matters over at the ITH forums, where I'll be hanging out quite a bit in the coming months.

Just Conjecturin', Volume 35: Norwegian Exposure

I've received word that a major new investigative series on the Absolute Poker scandal has dropped today on the Norwegian site dn.no, hone to the online Dagens Naeringsliv Magazine. This piece is written primarily by Goran Skaalmo and includes a ton of stuff never before made public. I have the article in hand and am searching for someone to do a proper Norwegian-to-English translation so I don't miss any of the subtleties. This is the second (and by far more important) of the two major pieces that I knew of in the works regarding Absolute Poker; to the best of my knowledge, Goran and his team have been working this for nearly three months.

This piece offers up some historical information on AP's founders that has never before been published, and it also will go a long way toward explaining properly the true nature of Madeira Fjord, which I touched on briefly last time out. It also appears that there has been a raid on the "business address" associated with one of the law firms (Bull & Co.) connected to Absolute Poker, and I'll be searching for secondary confirmation shortly.

Here's a brief taste, roughly translated, from late in the piece:

"At the Annual General Meeting in March, the shareholders know that there should be an agreement where the two founders of Absolute Poker, Tom and Scott Hilt Tatum IV, still have hidden interests in the company that controls the Absolute Poker. In a draft of the agreement, called "Share surrender agreement", it emerges that the two founders are entitled to benefits and the right to come back as major owners in Madeira Fjord or in the Portuguese subsidiary Avoine, which handles all the money flows from Absolute Poker." -- dn.no

Pauly's Blow-by-Blow of the Costa Rican Raids

I'm pretty sure that everyone who reads me also reads Dr. Pauly, but just in case, here's his read-it-as-it-happened account of yesterday's raids against the Costa Rican offices of Absolute Poker and PokerStars. The Stars part of the raid was a big mistake by the authorities. A Spanish TV station picked up some video of the raid, including a scene where they knocked down the doors at a private residence, perhaps Olman Rimola's mom's house or something like that. Rimola, a former mayoral candidate for the upscale Ezcazu enclave near San Juan with an interesting past, is an emerging figure of some importance in the overall story.

So many things are happening right now that it's hard to keep up. One should also check out the various Norwegian-language business reports surrounding Madeira Fjord's declaration of bankruptcy. Run them through Google Translate and you'll get a reasonable idea of what's going on, including a couple of scummy lawyers running for cover there as well.

Much more to follow soon.

Just Conjecturin', Volume 34: Behind the IDS Closing -- Olman Rimola vs. Paul Leggett

This one is smoking hot, and points at some of the real reasons that the IDS offices in Costa Rica (the customer support centers for Absolute Poker and UB.com) have closed.

The following is a Spanish-language memo to all the CR workers, followed what can only be described as a mind-bending exchange between Paul Leggett and Olman Rimola, operational head of the Costa Rica IDS office. I will re-sort the latter section into a top-to-bottom, chronological order. It's almost too much too grasp in a single reading. English version is lower down:


* * * * *

Date: Tue, May 3, 2011 11:36 am
To: allcr@idscr.com
Priority: Normal

Estimados compaÒeros:

Desde que el problema legal de AP/UB fue de mi conocimiento, he estado tratando de lograr el pago de las prestaciones de todos los empleados de IDS por parte de las compaÒÌas cuestionadas.

Como ustedes saben, esta operaciÛn la controlan varios extranjeros, algunos de ellos ubicados en IDS y yo no tengo participaciÛn en la toma de decisiones. Me limito a seguir instrucciones.

La semana pasada, como pueden ver en este correo, ejercÌ la presiÛn m·xima para lograr el pago de sus prestaciones laborales, tal y como por derecho les corresponde.

Ellos en ning˙n momento me han depositado el dinero de las prestaciones ni los gastos de planilla de mayo. Yo los perseguirÈ con el fin de lograr este objetivo, para lo cual acudirÈ a las autoridades de los Estados Unidos y de Costa Rica seg˙n corresponda.

Es deseo de esta gente seguir con su cuestionada operaciÛn en otro lado y dejarnos guindando. Al punto en que han liquidado y recontratado a los empleados directos de Brent en Escaz˙ y los de TBT.

TambiÈn pueden leer en el email que les di tiempo hasta hoy a las 12 de la noche para resolver esta situaciÛn. En caso de que insistan en su incumplimiento, los invito a unirse a este movimiento que hoy encabezo para lograr que se haga justicia. Y si tienen alguna prueba que aportar que apoye la acusaciÛn que se est· tramitando, por favor, (redacted) saber para conducirla a la embajada de los Estados Unidos. Sigo en contacto por esta vÌa.

Lamento toda esta situaciÛn y le pido a Dios guÌa y consejo para poder salir delante.

Olman RÌmola

--

Alejandro "hdbets" translated this for English readers as follows:

Dear Colleagues:

Ever since i learned about AP/UB legal issues i have been trying to obtain payment for the labor benefits of all IDS employees from these companies.

As you know this operation is controlled by several foreigners, some of them inside IDS and I don’t have any saying in decision making, I limit myself to following orders.

As you see on this email, last week i put maximum pressure on them, in order to obtain payment for the labor benefits you are entitled by law.

They have NOT deposited the money for these payments nor that for May payroll and expenses. Ill pursue them in order to achieve this, for which I’ll contact both US and Costa Rica authorities as needed.

This people intend to continue with their questionable operation somewhere else and leave us hanging, this has gone to the point of liquidate and then rehire both Brent’s employees at Escazú ( an exclusive neighborhood in San Jose, Costa Rica) and those from TBT.

As you can read on the email I have given them until 12AM tonight to solve this situation, in case they continue to ignore us and breach their contract I invite you to join this movement I’m leading to help us get justice. If you have any evidence to share that could support our case, please let me know so I can see that It gets to the US embassy, ill keep in touch via email.

I deeply regret this whole situation, and i ask God for guidance to be able to get through this.

Olman Rimola


* * * * *

(Date: Sometime last week, possibly very early on 4/29)

> Hi Paul,
>
> The company always has deposited IDS operational expenses.
> The liquidation for all IDS employees is USD$2,750,000.
> This amount has not been deposited yet into IDS bank account.

> If next Tuesday, May 3rd, this amount has not been deposited in IDS bank
> account, I will face all IDS employees and I will explain this situation.
> After that, I will go to the US Embassy and I will contact FBI agents,
> who are right now in Costa Rica, and I will reveal all the information I
> have of Absolute Poker and UltimateBet operations, including full detail of
> original shareholders, corporate structure, processing procedures, all
> related companies, lawyers, executives, bank statements, bank wires,
> emails and instructions I have received, etc.
> FBI will be more than glad in to grant me immunity exchanging this
> information.

> Just a reminder, if anything happens to me, or people close to me, I
> have prepared 3 sets of this information which are in hands of 3 different
> lawyers, with instructions to proceed with US Embassy and Costa Rican
> authorities.

> I feel sorry about ending our relationship like this way, but my IDS
> employees are first.
> Best regards,
>
> Olman RÌmola
>

* * * * *


Hi Olman,

I am shocked by the content of your email as it contradicts everything
that you said in the meeting earlier this week.

Can you please send me the detailed list of IDS liquidations so I can
discuss this with Stuart Gordon? Once I have met with Stuart, I would be
open to another meeting with you.

Paul


* * * * *


---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: Re: IDS employees liquidations
From: Olman RÌmola Castillo
Date: Fri, April 29, 2011 11:28 am
To: "Paul Leggett"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Paul, there is nothing to discuss here, that is the amount.
I know you will continue the operation elsewhere, make it easier for you.
Next Tuesday, I will close IDS; if you send the money the closing down
will be done without any problem. If you do not send the money I will
proceed as I mentioned before.
And if you try to misinform or slander me with my employees, I will
proceed too.
I am very serious this time.
Clock is ticking, don't waste your time...

Just Conjecturin' Supplemental: Index of Entries

I get a lot of complaints from readers that earlier entries in the Just Conjecturin' Series are hard to find via the archives, so here's a list of links to all the posts. starting with the first way back in September of 2009:

Just Conjecturin', Volume 1

Just Conjecturin', Volume 2: Sebok Signing (w/ Update)

Just Conjecturin', Volume 2.5: Oh, Those UB Hand Histories

Just Conjecturin', Volume 3: The 56% Solution

Just Conjecturin', Volume 4: Inside the Excapsa Ownership Bloc

Just Conjecturin', Volume 5: If a Forrest is Silent, Does That Mean There Aren't Any Trees?

Just Conjecturin', Volume 6: More on Excapsa: The Missing 2.6 Million Forfeited Shares

Three supplemental entries connected to Barry Greenstein's early UB hand histories from the UB cheating days; Barry was among those who played against the cheating accounts:

Barry's HH's Part 1
Barry's HH's Part 2
Barry's HH's Part 3

Just Conjecturin', Volume 7: (Help Me, KevMath, Help Me... with this Numbering Mess)

Just Conjecturin', Volume 8: Make That the 83% Solution

Just Conjecturin', Volume 9: The 'Shut Up and Settle, Dammit' Scene

Just Conjecturin', Volume 10: Defaults and Dividends, Chorus #2

Just Conjecturin', Volume 11: Meanwhile, Over at Absolute Poker, It Seems Scott Tom Really Did It

Just Conjecturin', Volume 12: The Absolute Scandal and the Day Occam Rolled Over in His Grave

Just Conjecturin', Volume 13: Absolute and the Snared Screen Names

Just Conjecturin', Volume 14: More Snared Images from Absolute

Just Conjecturin', Volume 15: The Graycat File

Just Conjecturin', Volume 16: The Curious Case of 'brainwashdodo'

Just Conjecturin', Volume 17: The Real Story of the UltimateBet Refunds

Just Conjecturin', Volume 18: Fakes a-Plenty Among the KGC 31

Just Conjecturin', Volume 19: The Real Problem with the UB Hand Histories

Just Conjecturin', Volume 20: The Carpenter Connection

Just Conjecturin', Volume 21: Graycat the Traveler

Just Conjecturin', Volume 22: It's the Plane, Boss, the Plane!

Just Conjecturin', Volume 23: So What Happened to the Plane?

Just Conjecturin', Volume 24: Tying Together Some Leads

Just Conjecturin', Volume 25: Flotsam, Jetsam and Other Errata

Just Conjecturin', Volume 26: Who or What is Riviera, Ltd.?

Just Conjecturin', Volume 27: Uncovering Brainwashdodo

Just Conjecturin', Volume 28: The Brainwashdodo Correspondence

Just Conjecturin', Volume 29: Inside the Makar Email

Just Conjecturin', Volume 30: Naming Names -- Greg Pierson

Just Conjecturin', Volume 31: Intermezzo

Just Conjecturin', Volume 32: Cereusly Funny Missing Videos

Just Conjecturin', Volume 33: Down Goes Frazier... err, Cereus

I'll try to remember to update this or get a widget or something that keeps a running index near the top of the page, as TenMile noted in the comments.

-- Haley
Haley's Poker Blog

Just Conjecturin', Volume 33: Down Goes Frazier... err, Cereus

An internal memo sent out at Absolute's Costa Rican offices early this morning:

From: The Executive Management Team
Date: Monday, May 2, 2011
Re: Restructuring

As all of you are aware, action was taken by the U.S. Department of Justice on April 15th and we have closed our US-facing operations. We now have to focus our resources on developing our non-US operations and software business. Unfortunately, this also means we must immediately restructure our organization and significantly downsize our operations.

It is a very sad day for all of us, as we have worked so hard to create a truly amazing company that is filled with extraordinary people. We have always been and remain fully committed to the employees and consultants of this business.

TBT employees will be paid full liquidations in accordance with Costa Rican labor laws. Consultants will be paid severance based on length of service. IDS liquidations have been previously funded in full to Olman Rimola.

Some of you will be approached by the business for a new role with a much smaller company that is focused on continuing our non-US operations and software businesses.

Now, the worse news. This comes to me second-hand, but I believe it, even if it must be labeled "conjecture" until we know for sure: There isn't going to be any new company; the letter itself is a ruse to buy time in which the bosses are going to get the remaining funds out of Costa Rica... along with themselves. Next destination is probably Panama, where a duplicate server farm was set up years ago.

I expect that non-US players will be allowed some sort of play-through option for their bankroll balances when the remnants of Cereus emerge under a new name, perhaps late this year or in 2012, and we'll probably all be subjected to some "assets sold to XYZ Company" garbage release down the road, which is likely to be untrue. The US players? I think the plan is to let them go whistle to the DoJ for their money, and that this move also represents Absolute waving a certain middle finger in the DoJ's direction.

Just Conjecturin', Volume 32: Cereusly Funny Missing Videos

Nothing too shattering this time out, friends and neighbors, just a quick note. The eight-video series put out by AP that features Paul Leggett being interviewed by Susan Reisler, with a couple of Annie Duke cameos, had been available for almost three years on YouTube.

Guess what's been yanked down in the past few days?

Not to worry, I had asked someone to archive those a while back and I'll put them up on my own YouTube site shortly. It wouldn't do for those to disappear, and so they won't. I'll let everyone know the new account name for accessing these when I have them in place.

Just Conjecturin', Volume 31: Intermezzo

Once again, major news developments have forced a change of schedule in my "Just Comjecturin'" publishing plans. I'd hoped to have my original Volume 31 up a week or ten days ago, but behind-the-scenes events required me to hold back for a short while.

Then, of course, Black Friday happened, and things everywhere are in an uproar. I asked one of my contacts what the latest was regarding the core folks at Cereus, and he replied back: "The rats are running for cover. Not taking any calls."

It's affected some (not all) of my good sources as well, but for those who are on the right side of this, I'm pretty sure they'll realize that nothing really has changed. As I've written elsewhere, this day was always going to happen, and the charges brought in those indictments center solely on alleged illicit banking practices, no matter what other noise the DoJ proclaims. I firmly believe that events were set in motion when PartyGaming paid its blood money to the US a couple of years bac. When financial boy-toy Daniel Tzvetkoff later paid back those who turned him in by turning states' evidence, it was a fait accompli that what happened Friday... would.

Of course I noticed that Scott Tom and Brent Beckley, stepbrothers and two of the original "frat boy" founders of Absolute Poker, were among those indicted. Absolute Poker SA, as shown in the indictments, is the parent company of the Cereus Network, which in turn houses the AP and UB sites. I don't know if this scuttles the rumored plans of Victory Poker to join that network, though that's a bit of a digression.

Regarding good ol' Scott Tom, of course he's been with the company the whole time, and yes, I'm still holding that evidence in abeyance, too. There will come a time when it is made public, and it will bring into question the actions of at least one more big name. There is also one other major poker player, plus one additional WSOP bracelet winner (though not a household name), whose involvement will be examined as well.

The Just Conjecturin' series marches on. You haven't seen it here, but I've never been busier, working on it virtually full-time of late. I am in the way of knowing about a couple of significant things about to occur, perhapsjustmaybe a news story or two, and out of professional courtesy I choose to let at least the first one of those things come out before I move forward once again. So I wait, a bit longer, but I'm still working on these affairs. If those expected stories take too long to appear or seem to fizzle out, I'll go ahead at some point anyway.

I am fairly confident that Stars players will eventually receive their money. I'm a hair less confident regarding Full Tilt, though it's probably only a few percent less likely than Stars. Quite a ways down the probability chart is where I place the Cereus sites, AP and UB, and this only because of the extenuating circumstances surrounding the company. My personal opinion is that Cereus players have a less than 50% or recovering their bankrolls, but I hope I'm pleasantly surprised, despite my feeling that these players were collectively stupid and greedy for continuing to play on the network in the first place.

So it's a holding pattern here, but I'm pretty sure that May will be momentous.