Travis Makar, personal computer expert, who worked for 4 years for the company published audio tapes, which contain evidence of the superuser cheatings that took place at Absolute Poker and UltimateBet. The leaders of the company knew about the conspiracy and intended to cover up the whole operation even lying about it to pros of the room such as Phil Hellmuth.
The UB superuser cheating took place between June 2003 and December 2007. The suspicious activity was first observed by players, many complaints and reports were made about high stakes players, who always seem to know when to raise and fold and are in general play weird. Investigations started, which in the end resulted in the 2009 discovery made by Kahnawake Gaming Commission that UltimateBet is in fact guilty in the superuser scandal, with the 1994 WSOP Main Event Champion Russ Hamilton as the main accusee.
According to the findings of the investigation, Hamilton and 31 of his associates had control over 117 accounts at the site. They used the "AuditMonster1" and "AuditMonster2" accounts for the collusion. These accounts were created for "security reasons", and they showed the user all the hole cards at the table. All the leaders of Ultimate Bet had access to these accounts. They only had to sign in with one of the AuditMonster accounts to plunder the players at the table from another account.
The KGC determined a $1,5 fine to be paid and $22 million in damages to be paid to players. Russ Hamilton was accused of a $6,1 million fraud pleaded guilty.
Russ Hamilton (middle)
The audio tapes which surfaced recently were made secretly by Russ Hamilton himself in 2008 at a meeting which discussed the superuser scandal. He recorded the meeting to ensure that UB will not put all the blame on him for the scandal, which was impossible to cover up.
The full recording:
In the 3-hour long audio, Russ Hamilton, founder of UB, Greg Pierson and two UB attorneys, Daniel Friedberg and Sanford 'Sandy' Millar negotiate how they could minimize risk and losses caused by the scandal.
Names of players are mentioned, who were supposedly the victims of the fraud such as Prahlad "Mahatma" Friedman, Mike Matusow, Mike "trambopoline" Fosco and Robert Williamson III, but Hollywood star Ben Affleck is also on the list, who 'contributed' a lot of money to UB.
Hamilton also states that UB leadership must have known about the superuser fraud, since they created a list of players, who were allowed to use faster transfers and withdrawals. A part of the money made through the fraud was kept at UltimateBet as profit.
Phil Hellmuth, the sponsored pro of UltimateBet at the time is also mentioned in the recording; it seems clear that he had no idea what was behind the scenes. Soon after the tapes were made public, he issued a statement through his agent, Brian Balsbaugh:
"I've made a living off of reading people at the poker table and in the business world. Trusting my gut has allowed me to be at the top of my profession and develop a lifetime of friends and great experiences.
Unfortunately, I made a horrible read regarding my relationship with the founders of the now defunct online poker site Ultimate Bet.
I trusted their team and believed in their ability to run a first class website and business. Most importantly, I allowed them to convince me that they were honest and forthright. I've never been more wrong about anything in my life.
When I became aware of the cheating scandal, I immediately insisted that everyone be paid back and whoever was responsible be banished from the company. At the time, I was led to believe that if I left UB right away the business would be impacted and then less likely to pay it's obligations to the victims. As such, I made the decision to believe the leaders of UB and stayed on in the hopes that they would make right to anyone cheated.
Listening to the recently released audio tapes of the UB founders has brought this situation back into the forefront of my thoughts. To hear them discussing this situation and actively deciding to keep me in the dark disgusts and infuriates me. They lied to me about their activities and I made a big mistake in trusting them for way too long.
I should have said something about this long ago, but until I heard the voices on the tapes myself I never really knew how wrong and misled I really was. I empathize deeply with the players who were taken advantage of through UB. Whether it is this or Black Friday, too many of my fellow poker players have lost confidence and their financial savings simply by playing the game they love. I hope that in the near future we have a strong, regulated online poker environment in the US so that we can all get back to playing the game we love. In the meantime, I want to pass along my support to everyone affected negatively through UB and my apologies for my initial support of people who didn’t deserve anyone’s trust in the first place."
Since UltimateBet and Absolute Poker were terminated, they didn't refund their players, and now that the tapes are public, no further impeachments seem to happen.
The UB superuser cheating took place between June 2003 and December 2007. The suspicious activity was first observed by players, many complaints and reports were made about high stakes players, who always seem to know when to raise and fold and are in general play weird. Investigations started, which in the end resulted in the 2009 discovery made by Kahnawake Gaming Commission that UltimateBet is in fact guilty in the superuser scandal, with the 1994 WSOP Main Event Champion Russ Hamilton as the main accusee.
According to the findings of the investigation, Hamilton and 31 of his associates had control over 117 accounts at the site. They used the "AuditMonster1" and "AuditMonster2" accounts for the collusion. These accounts were created for "security reasons", and they showed the user all the hole cards at the table. All the leaders of Ultimate Bet had access to these accounts. They only had to sign in with one of the AuditMonster accounts to plunder the players at the table from another account.
The KGC determined a $1,5 fine to be paid and $22 million in damages to be paid to players. Russ Hamilton was accused of a $6,1 million fraud pleaded guilty.
Russ Hamilton (middle)
The audio tapes which surfaced recently were made secretly by Russ Hamilton himself in 2008 at a meeting which discussed the superuser scandal. He recorded the meeting to ensure that UB will not put all the blame on him for the scandal, which was impossible to cover up.
The full recording:
In the 3-hour long audio, Russ Hamilton, founder of UB, Greg Pierson and two UB attorneys, Daniel Friedberg and Sanford 'Sandy' Millar negotiate how they could minimize risk and losses caused by the scandal.
Names of players are mentioned, who were supposedly the victims of the fraud such as Prahlad "Mahatma" Friedman, Mike Matusow, Mike "trambopoline" Fosco and Robert Williamson III, but Hollywood star Ben Affleck is also on the list, who 'contributed' a lot of money to UB.
Hamilton also states that UB leadership must have known about the superuser fraud, since they created a list of players, who were allowed to use faster transfers and withdrawals. A part of the money made through the fraud was kept at UltimateBet as profit.
Phil Hellmuth, the sponsored pro of UltimateBet at the time is also mentioned in the recording; it seems clear that he had no idea what was behind the scenes. Soon after the tapes were made public, he issued a statement through his agent, Brian Balsbaugh:
"I've made a living off of reading people at the poker table and in the business world. Trusting my gut has allowed me to be at the top of my profession and develop a lifetime of friends and great experiences.
Unfortunately, I made a horrible read regarding my relationship with the founders of the now defunct online poker site Ultimate Bet.
I trusted their team and believed in their ability to run a first class website and business. Most importantly, I allowed them to convince me that they were honest and forthright. I've never been more wrong about anything in my life.
When I became aware of the cheating scandal, I immediately insisted that everyone be paid back and whoever was responsible be banished from the company. At the time, I was led to believe that if I left UB right away the business would be impacted and then less likely to pay it's obligations to the victims. As such, I made the decision to believe the leaders of UB and stayed on in the hopes that they would make right to anyone cheated.
Listening to the recently released audio tapes of the UB founders has brought this situation back into the forefront of my thoughts. To hear them discussing this situation and actively deciding to keep me in the dark disgusts and infuriates me. They lied to me about their activities and I made a big mistake in trusting them for way too long.
I should have said something about this long ago, but until I heard the voices on the tapes myself I never really knew how wrong and misled I really was. I empathize deeply with the players who were taken advantage of through UB. Whether it is this or Black Friday, too many of my fellow poker players have lost confidence and their financial savings simply by playing the game they love. I hope that in the near future we have a strong, regulated online poker environment in the US so that we can all get back to playing the game we love. In the meantime, I want to pass along my support to everyone affected negatively through UB and my apologies for my initial support of people who didn’t deserve anyone’s trust in the first place."
Since UltimateBet and Absolute Poker were terminated, they didn't refund their players, and now that the tapes are public, no further impeachments seem to happen.
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