Ivey and Benyamine in FTP Scandal

This weekend saw the jaw-dropping release of Phil Ivey’s
Full Tilt Poker account information, revealing that he owed the company up to
$6.2million. Ivey, one of the leading faces of Team Full Tilt, was shown to
have received a total of $10.2million from the site in loans between June 2009
and April 2011. 

The story was broken by Subject: Poker editor-in-chief Noah Stephens-Davidowitz, who claims
on the Two Plus Two forums that he came into possession of the raw data not
from ‘someone looking to harm somebody’, but because he went looking for it.

Ivey originally sparked his fair share of controversy when
he entered into a lawsuit (now withdrawn) against Tiltware, Full Tilt Poker’s
software provider, following the events in the weeks after Black Friday. Ivey
condemned the company, stating that he was ‘deeply disappointed and
embarrassed that Full Tilt players have not been paid money they are owed’,
even taking the drastic step of choosing to boycott the 2011 WSOP in protest.

Tiltware hit back hard, describing
Ivey’s lawsuit as ‘frivolous and self-serving’ and an attempt ‘to further
enrich himself at the expense of others’. They even went so far as to let slip
that ‘Mr. Ivey has been
invited – and has declined – to take actions that could assist the company in
these efforts, including paying back a large sum of money he owes the site.’

Stephens-Davidowitz makes a number of
allegations based on the account information, the highlights of which are as
follows:

–  Ivey
received a loan totalling $10.2million in $500k and $1million installments
credited to his Full Tilt account over the course of two years.

–  In
October and November 2009, he made repayments to the total of $3million.

–  After
this, save for his last recorded repayment in the spring of 2010, Ivey
continues to receive large sums but ceases to pay them back.

–  It
is possible the money was repaid in cash or bank wires for which no
information is available, but Tiltware’s ominous reference to Ivey’s debt
suggests otherwise.

Another big name to be embroiled in the fracas
is none other than Full Tilt Red Pro David Benyamine. Stephens-Davidowitz
asserts that:

–  Benyamine appears to have been
indebted to FTP dating back to 2008.

–  Sizeable deductions were being made
from his salary and bonuses almost as soon as he received them, with the
transactions noted as ‘loan collections’.

–  By 2010, Benyamine was collecting a
hugely increased yearly salary of $500k. However, it was clear he still wasn’t
debt-free, with his hourly payments and rakeback going out of his account the
same day they went in.

–  Benyamine
managed to withdraw with apparent ease a sum of $5,500 for ‘travel
expenses’ seventeen days after Black Friday, while thousands of Full Tilt players
remain to this day unable to touch their frozen funds in the wake of April
15. 

This is a further slap in the face for all
players awaiting reimbursement, following the recent news that the hearing into
Full Tilt’s potentially unlawful actions has been postponed until
mid-September. It is still uncertain whether or not rumours of prospective
investors in the site will come up trumps, but for now all that the masses of
frustrated players can do is wait.