In a series of Tweets late in the week, Full Tilt Poker shareholder John Juanda (pictured) lashed out against several accusations made by Howard Lederer in the recently completed "Lederer Files" published by PokerNews. Among the assertions Juanda fired back on was the notion that he never repaid his debt to Full Tilt. The subject of Full Tilt's loose player loan policy took center stage in Part 4 of "The Lederer Files."Juanda Tweeted on Thursday why he never repaid his Full Tilt loan: "I owe FTP $256K, was offered to settle for 80% but declined when I found out Ray [Bitar], w/board's approval, was still taking home $200K+/mo post BF." Juanda elaborated, "Instead, I offered to pay 100% as soon as I could be certain it'd go toward paying players NOT management salary & lawyers fees."
In July, Lederer told Tom Dwan that Full Tilt's burn rate was $1.5 million per month. The U.S. Department of Justice, in its superseding indictment filed the same month, alleged that Bitar and Full Tilt payment processing guru Nelson Burtnick received "several million dollars" in salaries post-Black Friday.
Juanda then posed the following question to his nearly 32,000 followers on Twitter: "Howard didn't mention in his interview that FTP management also stole $5.4M from my best friend @Erik_Seidel… What would u do in my shoes? Send check to same ppl who just stole from ur buddy? Or wait + hope to pay to the right parties?"
The $5.4 million that Full Tilt's management allegedly "stole" from Seidel was not touched on during PokerNews' sit-down with Lederer (pictured).However, on Saturday, PokerNews COO Matt Parvis published a retrospective of "The Lederer Files" and revealed, "This information was something I was aware of and Lederer felt it should be discussed, but Seidel didn't want the information public for reasons to which I am not privy. Lederer has since contacted me and let me know that because of Juanda's Tweet, it was okay for me to confirm that this story was in fact true."
Lederer told Parvis, "None of them paid back their loans… We kept asking them to pay their money back." Specifically called out by Lederer in that department were Phil Ivey, Erick Lindgren, Juanda, Bitar, and David Oppenheim.
"The Professor" also charged that Juanda was tied as the second largest shareholder in Full Tilt. Juanda also refuted that fact, Tweeting, "For the record, Howard Lederer was wrong when he said I was 2nd largest shareholder of FTP! Maybe he REALLY didn't know!?" Juanda continued, "As Ray Bitar's boss, Howard Lederer should've accepted more blame instead of trying to shift blame to everyone else."
Why did Lederer agree to a seven-hour interview with PokerNews in Las Vegas in the first place, breaking his 15-month silence? According to Juanda, "IMO Lederer didn't do interview bcos he's sorry. He did it 2 settle old scores + put blame on ppl who disagreed w/how he ran FTP."
Also chiming in on "The Lederer Files" was PokerStars front man Daniel Negreanu (pictured), who insinuated that he didn't blame any of the pros Lederer called out for not paying their loans back. Negreanu posted on Twitter, "The list of people who owed FTP money is MUCH longer than what he listed. NO ONE would pay back a Ray Bitar-led FTP ever!"In an interview with PokerListings, Negreanu addressed the allegations made by Lederer that Full Tilt pro Erick Lindgren failed to repay a loan that was double-credited to him for a total of $4 million: "There is no way to condone that. What's clear at this point is he has a gambling problem and it caused him to do some truly foolish things."
Finally, Negreanu cited an article from a former Full Tilt Poker employee that claimed just 30% of Lederer's comments were the truth. Negreanu echoed, "I heard several comments that I knew to be absolutely blatant lies in the attempt to make him look like the lone savior while throwing everyone else under the bus."
If you missed any of "The Lederer Files," check out PocketFives' recaps of Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, and Part 7.
