With the Full Tilt Poker remission process in full swing, Rich TheEngineerMuny, Vice President of Player Relations for the Poker Players Alliance (PPA), has now turned his attention to helping the victims of Absolute Poker and UB. And, after doing some research, Muny might have found a legal loophole that would allow affected players to file a claim with the Garden City Group (GCG) and be repaid funds lost on Black Friday using the extra cash set aside for American Full Tilt players.

In a thread on the PocketFives forums, Muny said the PPA has been looking into the AP/UB situation extensively and has reached out to the DOJ about what could be done, if anything. “I have been digging into the Full Tilt Poker remission process to see if there are any openings for AP/UB victims,” he said. “I didn’t find a clear opening, but I did find one that could at least give U.S. AP/UB victims a way to apply for remission through the Garden City Group website.” The website is FullTiltPokerClaims.com.

He went on to explain that any remissions in the AP/UB case would be based on assets seized from the company. But, since there was virtually nothing leftover to seize, there would simply be no way to repay victims. After doing more investigating, he found what could be a loophole for using funds in the DOJ’s Full Tilt piggy bank to pay back AP/UB players. “I observed that GCG references United States v. PokerStars, et al., 11 Civ. 2564 as its authority for remission. It occurred to me that ‘et al’ could include UB and AP and, fortunately, it turns out ‘et al’ does include Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker.”

With that piece of legalese in mind, he contacted gaming lawyer David Gzesh, who found that the Commonwealth of Kentucky was paid $6 million from the Full Tilt/GCG fundto drop its claim on the AP/UB domains. “With this precedent, IMO one could file a claim with GCG for AP/UB funds and at least get the claim before DOJ for consideration,” Muny concluded.

From an earlier update on the GCG’s own website, we can see that only 2% of players eligible for a Full Tilt refund had bothered to file a claim within the first few weeks of the process. Of course, players still have until November 16 to do so, but it’s possible that a large portion of the cash will remain unclaimed.

The Full Tilt Poker money could be left behind for a variety of reasons: those with small balances might not find it worth their time to go through the remission process, while some might want to avoid the scrutiny of the U.S. Government. Many others might have simply changed e-mail addresses and remain completely unaware that their frozen funds are now available.

Whatever the reason, any money that remains after November 16 will stay with the DOJ. Might there be enough leftover to settle up with AP/UB victims as well?

Before you get too excited, the move would certainly be a long shot. “To be clear, such applications won’t have a high probability of success, as GCG is set up for FTP remission, but it could give AP/UB victims a toe inside the door while PPA continues its outreach to the DOJ,” Muny said.

But, for players who had five- and six-figure balances frozen on Black Friday on UB or Absolute Poker, any lead might be worth pursuing.

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