 The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE) ordered Amaya Gaming to fire four senior executives that are connected with PokerStars and Full Tilt. This comes as a non-negotiable condition of receiving a license to operate online in the state.
DGE released full report of investigation of Amaya’s acquisition (worth $4.9bln) of the PokerStars and Full Tilt. The report explains in details what actions DGE took to ensure that Amaya has distanced itself from the principal figures associated with PokerStars and FullTilt.
Amaya’s petition to the DGE said that the company had succeeded in “irrevocably and totally extinguishing the ownership interest of Isai and Mark Scheinberg” and that executives “will have no further involvement in the operation or management of their former companies.” If you don't know - Isai and Mark Scheinbeeg were founders of PokerStars and 2 of 11 individuals indicted on April 15, 2011 (aka Black Friday) for continuing to serve US customers following the 2006 passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA).
DGE examined over 45k pages of documents and went through sworn interviews with 64 former employees of Stars, Tilt and Pyr (Stars’ software division, since renamed Amaya Software) who were kept on following Amaya’s acquisition. DGE commented that it's satisfied with the steps Amay took and that the company “permanently and irrevocably severed all of the ownership interests” of the Scheinbergs.
However, the DGE ordered Amaya to “separate from employment on or before January 30, 2016, four individuals identified by the Division as having failed to establish the requisite good character, honesty and integrity required by the [New Jersey Casino Control] Act due to their involvement in the business activities of the PokerStars Entities between the enactment of UIGEA and Black Friday.”
The DGE didn’t identify the four individuals by name, but as it's not hard to find out we already know that those people are:
Michael Hazel, Stars former CFO;
Israel Rosenthal, director of operations for the Rational Group and a “long-time friend of the Scheinberg family;”
Charles Fabian, former head of games systems development at Full Tilt’s parent Pocket Kings Consulting;
software manager Serge Bourenkov.
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The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE) ordered Amaya Gaming to fire four senior executives that are connected with PokerStars and Full Tilt. This comes as a non-negotiable condition of receiving a license to operate online in the state.
