It’s been eerily quiet on the Absolute Poker and UB fronts. Like Full Tilt, UB and Absolute Poker officials have been relatively silent in updating the general public about the status of their funds, which have been frozen on the CEREUS Network rooms since Black Friday last April. A year later, discussions between the CEREUS Network sites and the U.S. Department of Justice could soon be coming to a conclusion.

An Absolute Poker and UB spokesperson told PocketFives on Wednesday, “Our discussions with the DOJ are still in progress. We are confident that these discussions are nearing resolution, while legal constraints prevent us from making further details public or speculating on a time line at this stage.”

What the “discussions” entail and when a resolution could happen are not yet known. Last June, it was reported that the CEREUS Network was in debt over $50 million, but only had $5 million in assets.

Absolute Poker and UB are largely dormant, as according to the traffic ranking site PokerScout, the two rooms’ cash game traffic is down 99.8% year-over-year. In mid-December, Absolute Poker co-founder Brent Beckley told a Federal judge, “I knew that it was illegal to deceive the banks.” Beckley and Absolute Poker’s Scott Tom were both indicted on Black Friday, and Tom has not yet been brought into custody. Read more.

On why the updates coming from UB and Absolute Poker have been few and far between, TwoPlusTwo poster “PokerAddict” speculated, “I too have wondered why AP/UB news has not existed, especially compared to FTP. I wonder if they are happy getting Brent to plead guilty and the amount of money they seized, realizing there is no other money.”

In a thread in the Poker Sites forum here on PocketFives, posters were largely disillusioned with the situation, with one member of the online poker community admitting, “My UB money has been dead to me for months.” Another poker player echoed, “You don’t know how many times I’ve thought to myself it’d be nice to have my UB bankroll IRL right now.”

In October 2011, CEREUS’ parent company, Blanca Games, proposed liquidating its assets in order to repay players. The proposal, which was made to the Kahnawake Gaming Commission (KGC), has not been referenced since, but PocketFives has heard rumors from credible sources that players could be repaid 15 to 20 cents on the dollar.

The KGC commented at the time, “Over the past several weeks, we were advised of a potential solution prepared by Blanca and its representatives establishing a process to liquidate Blanca’s assets and distribute proceeds to players. We understand that this process has been presented to [the DOJ] for consideration and approval.”

Meanwhile, player cashouts have seemed to grind to a halt. One member of PocketFives posted in late February, “The min cashouts stopped long ago, I have had one pending for more than six months or so. Pretty sure the shop has closed up now.”

Last month, Avoine, a subsidiary of Madeira Fjord that purchased Absolute Poker in late 2006 or early 2007, claimed it had no knowledge of any wrongdoing at the embattled online poker site: “During the period of 2007 to the present, neither Avoine nor its management knew of the allegedly wrongful conduct upon which the plaintiff’s forfeiture claim is predicated.”

The natives are unquestionably getting restless when it comes to UB and Absolute Poker. One poster on TwoPlusTwo addressed how Blanca Games managed to shed seemingly all of its player deposits: “It is insane that they don’t have money to pay. This isn’t even counting their profits; we are just asking for the money we deposited. Even if the company was breakeven, they should be able to pay us back. IMO it is a joke that after everything that has happened, there has been absolutely no pressure on these criminals.”

We’ll keep you posted with the latest news from UB, Absolute Poker, and Full Tilt right here on PocketFives.