Originally Posted by
thesidedish
Howard & Chris were just a cpl poker players riding the gravy train right and had no reason to believe the gravy train was bout to stop?? So if the government doesn't shut down the sites, nobody woulda been the wiser? Coulda happened to anybody, I blame the guy whos shady enough to lie about health issues (bitar)
the reason why howard & chris showed up this year is they probly felt like they never really did anything wrong and just got unlucky for the most part
They weren't just riding a gravy train.
Howard and Chris were two of four board members who approved of stealing the player money in order to keep the company afloat.
Even more offensive, Full Tilt was still giving out profit distributions to owners (despite there no longer being profit) while they were stealing player money.
If the government didn't bust them in April 2011, the scam would have just continued longer, and would have been for even more money.
They only cared about having enough player funds to process expected cashouts, rather than having all player money on hand.
No matter which way you try to spin it, it's clear that Howard and Chris were stealing player money, which was not theirs to touch.
You're correct that neither believe they did anything wrong. They have talked themselves into believing that they were simply borrowing from player funds after various unexpected things occurred which depleted Full Tilt's operating funds. They figured that their choice was to either "borrow" this money or shut the site down, so they chose to "borrow" it, and then things just didn't go as planned.
But that's bullshit. You can't give yourself loans by stealing from other people (even if you think you intend to repay). If you have depleted company funds, you need to either sell the company or get investments/loans from third parties in order to keep operating. Stealing other people's money is never an option.
The problem is that Howard and Chris saw player money as "theirs" just because they were holding it for us.
Sidedish, let's say you were staying in my room during WSOP. Let's say that I chunked off my life savings during that time, and needed $10k to enter the Main. Rather than seeking a stake to get in, I simply open up the room safe and steal your $10k, figuring that I will give you that $10k back if I end up cashing.
Would you be cool with that?
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