Tusk investments - anyone owed anything?

[Casinomeister]

This just in:

Tusk Investment Corporation

(In Liquidation)
international company number: 28453

We refer to the appointment of Grant Dene Sparks and Raymond William Richards as Joint and Several Liquidators of the abovenamed company on 6 March 2008, and advise that the corporation’s creditors are located throughout the world and our detailed report to creditors can be accessed from the link set out below:



We understand that you may have a creditor’s claim against this company.

Should you have any queries in relation to this matter, please contact our office via the following means:-

Email: tusk@ppb.com.au; or
Telephone: +61 7 3831 2700

DATED: this 18th day of March 2009

Grant Sparks and Ray Richards

Joint & Several Liquidators

If you're a webmaster still owed by these guys, here's a point of contact.

[spiderlegz]

Players can expect to get some 20% back. Sucks especially for those who had several hundred thousands there.

And the PDF that is private and confidential, its posted on a public webpage

The only winner seems to be SimsPartners. Grant Sparks and Ray Richards both charged over 400AUD/hour.

Edit: There are over 3000 creditors of which the vast majority are players.

Further edit: The biggest single balance is somewhere around 650k. Ouch.

[spiderlegz]

Wonder if MG will ever comment on this?

And some wonder why there arent any high stakes games going on at Prima..

[pokeraddict]

Wonder if MG will ever comment on this?

And some wonder why there arent any high stakes games going on at Prima..

Yes this has devastated Microgaming's reputation in online poker. A year later it is hard to believe they still have no real comment and no real assurance that this will be handled the right way.

[spiderlegz]

Yes this has devastated Microgaming's reputation in online poker. A year later it is hard to believe they still have no real comment and no real assurance that this will be handled the right way.

I guess they have seen how little publicity it has gotten, the only thing being a thread at 2+2. No one seems to care even if we are talking about several millions.

Even if much is hearsay MGs actions (mainly lack of it) casts a very shady light on them. Starting by the unwillingness to cooperate with the liquidators.

Edit: Just remembered that the Primarep posted in the thread at 2+2 acting like he would be an "outsider" until he was outed by Pokeraddict. What a class act..

[Mousey]

Yes this has devastated Microgaming's reputation in online poker. A year later it is hard to believe they still have no real comment and no real assurance that this will be handled the right way.

OK... Tusk is who? what? An MG poker room that folded? The name rings a tiny bell... Wait... is this something to do with when Casino Action went belly up, then 'merged' (or whatever term you wish) with Casino Rewards?

So... that didn't take care of the poker rooms and the players?? If I'm getting warm here, that is such a crappy thing to happen.

[spiderlegz]

OK... Tusk is who? what? An MG poker room that folded? The name rings a tiny bell... Wait... is this something to do with when Casino Action went belly up, then 'merged' (or whatever term you wish) with Casino Rewards?

So... that didn't take care of the poker rooms and the players?? If I'm getting warm here, that is such a crappy thing to happen.

Note: all amounts quoted are in AUD (at least thats what I understood so dont take it for granted)

Correct. There isnt actually any good article that would include every twist and turn. Thats a big reason IMO why this havent gotten the publicity it should.

The casinos didnt actually have that big liabilities (about $265k) and their assets were valued at $550k. So CR got them quite cheap ($815k).

The poker skins (28 skins in total) were a different case tough. Amounts owed were significantly higher. Player purse $5,312k, affiliate balances $1,450k (I assume most is the skin owners balances) and trade creditors $2,000k adding up to a total of $8,762k.

Currently the liquidation is still in progress but its unlikely that they will be able to realise more than $1,300k-1,700k.

So the players will take a huge hit, the most common assumption being that they will get 20cent for a dollar. MG has been totally quiet and at one point via a lawyer stated that they will not step up and cover any balances.

This isnt much of information but gives some clues of the amounts.

I think Pokeraddict would be more suited to give a better overview. Basically the only information you can get is from the 2+2 thread (over 3200 posts). It can be found over here: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/28...-close-141341/

[RobWin]

Note: all amounts quoted are in AUD (at least thats what I understood so dont take it for granted)

Correct. There isnt actually any good article that would include every twist and turn. Thats a big reason IMO why this havent gotten the publicity it should.

The casinos didnt actually have that big liabilities (about $265k) and their assets were valued at $550k. So CR got them quite cheap ($815k).

The poker skins (28 skins in total) were a different case tough. Amounts owed were significantly higher. Player purse $5,312k, affiliate balances $1,450k (I assume most is the skin owners balances) and trade creditors $2,000k adding up to a total of $8,762k.

Currently the liquidation is still in progress but its unlikely that they will be able to realise more than $1,300k-1,700k.

So the players will take a huge hit, the most common assumption being that they will get 20cent for a dollar. MG has been totally quiet and at one point via a lawyer stated that they will not step up and cover any balances.
This isnt much of information but gives some clues of the amounts.

I think Pokeraddict would be more suited to give a better overview. Basically the only information you can get is from the 2+2 thread (over 3200 posts). It can be found over here: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/28...-close-141341/

If that's the case then this is really going to look bad on Microgaming the Company and will most likey trickle down to ultimately affect the operators as well in the long term.

[spiderlegz]

If that's the case then this is really going to look bad on Microgaming the Company and will most likey trickle down to ultimately affect the operators as well in the long term.

It was actually one players, who has 384k stuck, father (who is a lawyer) that sent a fax telling that he intended to file a lawsuit against them. He was contacted the same day by a lawfirm in Toronto where they denied all claims and saying they were just the software provider. This was 8 months ago.

Thats the only reply anyone has gotten from MG in the whole time. And that was on the same day and through a local lawyer.

I think that they (creditors) should hire someone to write good articles which would sum up the whole thing and contain all the facts. Some well written articles would be a much better way to get peoples attention than a single thread at 2+2.

[Mellowman307]

I have been an active participant in the 2+2 thread.

There is no evidence that Microgaming has not cooperated with the Liquidators, on the contrary the sum that Microgaming held for Tusk has been turned over to the Liquidators as noted in the Report to Creditors.

In addition, Microgaming issued several press releases initially and the final press release indicated that Microgaming would comment further when the Liquidators were done.

The Liquidators have not been forthcoming with anyone who has queried the progress of the liquidation so why does anyone assume that they have spoken to Microgaming about the progress?

If Microgaming requires annual financial statements from their operators the soonest they would have known that Tusk was in trouble would have been when they recieved the June 30, 2007 statement, ie Oct/Nov 2007 as the June 30, 2006 statements show that Tusk was profitable at that time.

When Tusk was in the casino business with just one poker room their profits averaged $23.5K/ month. It wasn't until they expanded into the white label skins that they started to lose $150K+/month.

The owner of Battlefield Poker has just admitted that Tusk owed him $1M+.
It is only reasonable to assume that he knew Tusk was in financial trouble long before anyone else was aware.

And no I'm not affiliated with Microgaming other than as a player, but my background includes being a Bank Manager and I am fully conversant with financial statements, liquidations, etc.

In my opinion, if you rely on others to do your "due diligence" when considering depositing in any poker room and things go wrong, don't look around to see who's got the deepest pockets and then try and attach blame to them.