Someone seems to have opened the sluice gates and the water and the muck are all set to flow. The question is who has done that.

These scandals are almost impossible to follow anymore with all the things that continue to come up but here is the latest.

Towards the end of May 2008 Tokwiro released a statement that the incidence of fraud at Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker related to a flaw in the software that was purchased from the previous owners. Employees of the previous owners were exploiting the flaw and cheating genuine players. The statement said that the flaw had been rectified and that those who had suffered losses were being compensated. Fresh due diligence had been carried out. And everyone thought that all was well that ends well.

There was a trickle of allegations after that. But mostly it pertained to online aliases that were thought to be involved in the cheating and should be investigated. Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker were thriving. Then in the middle of July 2008 Nat Arem came out with some startling revelations. Nat Arem had been instrumental in unearthing the original scandal.

An insider named brainwashdodo provided a list of names that could be related to Russ Hamilton. Hamilton was a poker player of repute and the previous owner of Ultimate Bet. Arem examined the information and concluded that Hamilton if not personally involved at least knew who the super users were. Not everyone agreed with Arem. Barry Greenstein defended Hamilton in an article written on July 20 in the Poker News Daily.

Then last week Tokwiro responded like there is no tomorrow. First they announced the launch of Cereus, a combined platform for Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet. This would pool in the customer base of the two poker rooms making it the third largest in the online poker industry. Then Tokwiro announced that they had concluded their investigation and turned over the report to Kahnawake. This came as a surprise because it was generally believed that the investigation was completed before the May statement was issued and that both Ultimate Bet and the Kahnawake Gaming Commission were satisfied in all respects.

Was then the earlier statement a cover up between Tokwiro and Kahnawake? Possible say many because Joseph Tokwiro Norton is the present owner of Tokwiro and the former Grand Chief of the Kahnawake. Arem has even insinuated that Phil Hellmuth who is closely associated with Ultimate Bet is involved. In his blog Arem writes, “Does anyone have the balls to ask Phil Hellmuth about this out at the WSOP?” Anyway Tokwiro announced the names of 19 accounts and 88 usernames but no real names. The very next day Kahnawake announced that it was handing over the investigation to an independent agency. They have incorporated an Independent Monitoring Team headed by Frank Catania to conduct a full forensic audit of both the poker rooms.

This response seems unlikely based on Arem’s allegations. There appears to be another trigger. Ultimate Bet “stole” Tiffany Michelle from Poker News during the recent WSOP. And Poker News wields clout in the poker industry. Could there be some connection there.