Excapsa Pays 15 Million over Ultimatebet Scandal
Written by Matt W | Thursday, November 13th, 2008
A financial settlement has been reached between Tokwiro Enterprises, the present owner of Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet, and Excapsa Software, the previous owner.
Excapsa is to pay $15 million to Blast-Off Limited, the Tokwiro controlled company that originally acquired UltimateBet.
These funds will used to immediately repay the players affected by the super user cheating as determined by the Kahnawake gaming commission. The settlement has been endorsed by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.
The understanding is that in return for the $15 million, Blast Off Limited will resume paying purchase price installments to the liquidators of Excapsa. The payments were halted when the super user scandal surfaced and it was realized that Excapsa had sold online poker rooms with flawed software to Blast Off Limited. This $15 million is over and above the $6.1 million already refunded to the players prior to the release of the preliminary findings of the Kahnawake Gaming Commission. It may be recalled that Kahnawake had also levied a fine of $1.5 million on Ultimate Bet. Whether that fine will be covered by the $15 million settlement is also not known.
Paul Leggett, Chief Operating Officer of Tokwiro, who released this information, said that as a result of this settlement the final refunds to the players have been made. He also said that Tokwiro now stands vindicated. “Now that the main perpetrator has been named, the settlement with the previous owners is behind us, and players have received refunds, it should now be apparent that Tokwiro had no involvement in this cheating and that we have fought to correct it with every tool at our disposal.” However he added that this is not the end of the matter. He said that Tokwiro would pursue legal action against those involved in the scandal till full and final justice is delivered.
Leggett was possibly referring to Russ Hamilton who was named as a perpetrator of the scandal in an independent enquiry by the Kahnawake Gaming Commission. Hamilton, the 1994 WSOP Main Event bracelet winner, was a former marketing executive of an affiliate of Ultimate Bet. The Kahnawake enquiry found that he was not only the brain behind the scandal but also the main beneficiary. Hamilton has so far maintained a silence on the issue, requesting the poker fraternity to wait till the full facts are revealed.
The Kahnawake Gaming Commission has reacted to the settlement. As per its preliminary order Ultimate Bet was to comply with a number of conditions by November 3, 2008. Ultimate Bet has asked for more time to comply with those conditions and looking at the progress made by Ultimate Bet in resolving the issues this time has been granted. One of the reasons for the delay was that Excapsa is under liquidation.
Kahnawake’s final decision will be announced only after it has verified that all aggrieved players have received monies due to them and Ultimate Bet has reported compliance of the other conditions within the revised time frame.
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