On Sunday, PokerNews published a statement from former Full Tilt Consulting Head of Public Relations Michele Clayborne, whom many in the poker community thought was actually FTPDoug. Clayborne was largely a one-woman PR department and promoted the Full Tilt brand around the world through distributing press releases, arranging player interviews, and fielding questions from the media, among other tasks.

In recent days, Shyam Markus has been revealed as the man behind the FTPDoug moniker, not Clayborne. The latter commented in her statement to PokerNews, “The revelation of the true identity of FTPDoug was long overdue. Until this announcement, I too was not aware of this person’s identity, although I asked for clarification on numerous occasions due to the fact that some unreliable and misleading poker press deemed FTPDoug to be me with 100 percent certainty.”

Markus has since been busy fielding player questions about the re-launch of Full Tilt Poker, which could happen in late October or early November. Players from outside of the United States will receive their Full Tilt funds via PokerStars, while U.S. customers will need to file a claim with the Department of Justice in order to be made whole. Whether U.S. players will receive their full account balances remains to be seen.

After lambasting any media outlet who claimed she was FTPDoug, Clayborne explained that she was not privy to sensitive information about the inner workings of Full Tilt, which the U.S. Government charged was nothing more than a Ponzi scheme: “I was also not informed about any of the intricate details of the financial inner workings of the FTP organization, nor should I have been. I was not an employee of the company, nor is investor relations, finances, or accounting my area of expertise.”

Clayborne, whose press releases included the announcement of a Fast $50 bonus at Full Tilt, the site sponsoring an MMA series, and the release of various FTOPS schedules, noted that she is “loyal” to her clients and, as such, “never commented on this tragic matter publicly, even though I was the target of several untrue and malicious postings that were damaging to my reputation.”

As the former PR guru for a now-distressed company, Clayborne reiterated, “I would never intentionally mislead the public. Any PR statements I have ever released were under my own name and all information for my press releases was both provided and expressly approved by FTP.”

Clayborne called the fallout surrounding Full Tilt a “complicated crisis situation” and once again took a swipe at any news sites who hinted that FTPDoug and she were one in the same: “It is unfortunate that there are unreliable poker news sites and bloggers that disseminate self-serving, inaccurate, and misleading information to the poker playing public – further clouding an already tense situation. You deserve better.”

On Twitter, Markus bills himself as the Poker Room Manager of Full Tilt and has received a backlash of sorts from players for promoting what was once the second largest online poker site in the world. As one Two Plus Two poster asserted, “His statements had a role in people’s planning of their financial future and investments into a Ponzi scheme-esque post-Black Friday operation. He did so anonymously. Because PokerStars has made him reveal his true identity does not mean we should trust him anymore to do the right thing now or in the future.”

Markus is now posting under his real name and claimed he had been working with Full Tilt since 2005. In the early days, he tag-teamed with a co-worker to post on forums under the FTPDoug moniker, but after 2008, Markus was responsible for all of the comments the account provided.

When Black Friday rolled around, Markus revealed that he did not write most of what was published under his name. He added, “It was devastating when I eventually found out that the company didn’t have the funds to cover player balances and I’m truly sorry for anything I posted that turned out to not be true.”

We’ll keep you posted on the latest Full Tilt news right here on PocketFives.