ULTIMATEBET PROBE CONCLUDED (Update)

1 August 2008

Tokwiro has passed full report on to Kahnawake - but still no identities disclosed


The latest rash of statements and message board comments on the UltimateBet and Absolute Poker multi million dollar cheating scandals (see previous InfoPowa reports) was capped by a statement from parent company Tokwiro Enterprises ENRG as the week ended. Registered in Kahnawake, the company is owned by former chief Joe Norton, with Paul Leggett responsible for day to day operations as the COO.

The thrust of the Tokwiro statement is that it has now concluded its investigation into allegations of unfair play on UB's web site, and has referred its report to the regulating Kahnawake Gaming Commission, which is apparently carrying out an independent probe.

Tokwiro informs that it has compiled complete forensic evidence including the IP addresses, devices, transfer and withdrawal histories, and names associated with the player accounts that benefited from illicitly viewing hole card information.

The Tokwiro enquiry has identified a total of 19 accounts and 88 associated usernames that were involved in the cheating, including the accounts that were named in Tokwiro's publicly posted investigation updates of May 29, 2008 and July 8, 2008. The company advises that the same (as yet unidentified) perpetrators controlled all of these usernames.

"There are no new perpetrators involved, only new usernames," the statement asserts. "Usernames were changed many times over the course of the cheating scam in an apparent scheme to avoid detection. Our complete list of usernames involved in the cheating scheme has now been turned over to the KGC, and the Company does not expect to uncover any additional usernames."

Paul Leggett, Tokwiro's Chief Operating Officer, said, "Make no mistake: our management team is outraged that this cheating occurred on our site through illicit software placed on the UB servers prior to our purchasing UltimateBet."

The individuals behind UB and AP prior to acquisition by Tokwiro remain a mystery, as do financial details of the change of ownership.

Leggett continued: "Tokwiro is aggressively pursuing legal avenues of redress in order to protect and compensate our players and the business. Rest assured that we will release more information to the poker community and to the public at large as we enforce our and our players' rights.

"With respect to refunds to the affected players, we are continuing our analysis in order to determine the refund amounts. We will move forward with another round of refunds in the weeks ahead."

Leggett expressed gratitude to the poker community (a reference to a band of determined and expert player-detectives who uncovered the scams) for its 'invaluable contributions to this investigation' and assured the poker public that Tokwiro remains committed to fully investigating any claims of fraud.

Tokwiro claims that its investigation revealed that the perpetrators logged into the client software, using an account that had the ability to view hole cards. The ability of a specific account to view hole cards was enabled by illicit software that was placed on the UltimateBet servers prior to October 2006, which was before Tokwiro acquired the business.

Tokwiro's statement advises that the account that was used to view hole cards never actually played in a game. Instead, the perpetrators used hole card information gained from logging in with this account while playing on other accounts, which thereby benefited from the cheating.

"The money won by the accounts that received hole card information was then moved around and off the site in a complex web of player-to-player transfers and withdrawals. This contributed to the complexity of Tokwiro's efforts to uncover the truth" the statement explains, without identifying the individuals involved.

In further interesting developments, it appeared Saturday morning that the player-detectives' rolling progress report thread on the 2plus2 forum had been closed.

Online Casino News courtesy of InfoPowa