Absolute Poker & UltimateBet near deal with DOJ

Following months of silence, an unidentified & ‘informal’ source at Cereus Poker Network sites Absolute Poker & UltimateBet told portal PocketFives this week that its negotiations with the US Department of Justice regarding involvement in the Black Friday indictments was close to bearing fruit.

The source told PocketFives, “Our discussions with the DOJ are still in progress. We are confident that these discussions are nearing resolution, while legal constraints prevent us from making further details public or speculating on a time line at this stage.”

The Cereus sites, have taken a quiet approach to their dealings with the DOJ following the fallout from Black Friday, with negotiations have been ongoing, with the deadlines agreed for resolution extended several times, militating against the reimbursement of seized funds to the players.

PocketFives says that in June last year Cereus was in debt to over $50 million, but only had $5 million in assets. However, the company’s technology assets are thought to be valuable & could be sold to raise cash once a settlement is reached with the US government.

“The US Justice Department has seized a major portion of UB.com’s bank accounts as part of a probe that concluded exactly one year ago this week (April 15, 2011). Those funds will be available to customers who have made a claim with the US government based on what is owed subtracted from what is under seizure.

“The Kahnawake Gaming Commission (KGC), which licenses UB.com & Absolute, suggested that players would likely see between 15 to 20 percent of what is owed to them,” however, when they players will ever see this money is not known.