Full Tilters Lederer and Bloch Finally Speak

Full Tilters Lederer and Bloch Finally Speak

Tuesday, Sep 25, 2012 | By CasinoGuide

Nearly all of the executives and owners of Full Tilt Poker had remained silent since the US government cracked down on the company on April 15, 2011 (aka Black Friday) but Howard Lederer and Andy Bloch have broken their silence in different interviews.

Bloch was the first to speak up, speaking with Diamond Flush Poker in an interview about various issues related to Full Tilt Poker and Black Friday.

Bloch was both a sponsored pro and a shareholder in Full Tilt as well as one of its more recognizable faces.

The interview contained few bombshells and consisted largely of Bloch repeatedly claiming that he knew little about the inner workings of Full Tilt.

Much of the blame for the company's implosion Bloch placed on the shoulders of CEO Ray Bitar.

For the most part Bloch tried to paint a picture of largely clueless owners and shareholders who were never given a true account of how desperate Full Tilt's financial situation had become in early 2011.

By then a backlog of hundreds of millions of dollars in funds that had been credited to players but couldn't be processed and collected had piled up.

Howard Lederer's extensive interview with PokerNews -- which ran for more than 7 hours -- had an even bigger splash in the poker world.

Lederer was far more involved in the day-to-day operations of Full Tilt from its founding up until it was sold to PokerStars in 2012.

Lederer would strike a similar stance to Bloch's and place most of the blame for the company's financial woes on Ray Bitar and CFO Gil Coronado.

Lederer would go a step further and claim that much of the mismanagement occurred after Full Tit moved its operations to Dublin where he and other shareholders had little way to impact or oversee day to day operations.

Lederer would spill a few beans though as he claimed that many shareholders were more concerned about their legal culpability and financial state than ensuring that customers were repaid.

Lederer also detailed some of the huge loans made by Full Tilt to shareholders and sponsored pros -- the vast majority of which were never repaid.