Howard Lederer Apologizes for Full Tilt

full tiltFormer Full Tilt Poker executive Howard Lederer issued an apology for the events that led to the poker site failing to have funds on hand to pay all its players in the wake of 2011’s Black Friday. Lederer, in part, said “I take full responsibility for Full Tilt’s failure to protect player deposits leading up to Black Friday.”

In the wake of its domain being seized by the U.S. Department of Justice in April of 2011, Full Tilt was not able to refund all account balances because of a failure to segregate operational and player funds. PokerStars went on to buy the Full Tilt platform and refund all players. Lederer, the public face of Full Tilt, settled a civil complaint stemming from Black Friday in 2012. He’s pretty much stayed out of the poker spotlight ever since, other than a series of interviews he did called the Lederer Files.

Lederer does not get into much in the way of details about the events leading up to Full Tilt having a massive shortfall of funds, but endeavors to apologize. In the wake of Black Friday, Lederer admits that Full Tilt players “trusted the site, and they trusted me, and I didn’t live up to that trust.”

More from the apology:

I take full responsibility for Full Tilt’s failure to protect player deposits leading up to Black Friday. The shortfall in player deposits should never have happened. I should have provided better oversight or made sure that responsible others provided that oversight. I was a founder in the company that launched Full Tilt, and I became the face of the company’s management in the poker community. Many of our players played on the site because they trusted me.

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