by Hillary LaClair, Senior Editor
Fenruary 6, 2009
New developments have arisen in Clonie Gowen’s legal battle against Full Tilt in which she claims she had been denied over a year’s worth a pay awarded to the other sponsors of the online poker site. Filing a lawsuit against the company and a number of its professional players, Gowen has amended her complaint to add more defendents to her list.
In the 33-paged lawsuit against Full Tilt and its players, Gowen has added to defendents, including Pocket Kings Consulting, Ltd and Tiltproof, Inc. Gowen claims that each of these companies owe her recompense and has said that they run the operations of Full Tilt and the customer support featured there. The slew of defendents not only includes Full Tilt and its pro players as well, but some eighteen other companies that are involved in Full Tilt’s management.
Gowen’s attorneys of Howard & Howard, PLLC of Las Vegas, have also listed a new number of discrepancies. Gowen alleges that a meeting was hosted in 2004 where each member of the Full Tilt professional team was informed of a payment agreement. She has said that because her name was attached to Full Tilt, the company profited from her partnership in driving new customers in – and that she was to earn 1 full percent of that revenue from 2004 until her termination in 2008.
The legal team has filed of an expediting of the case in order to gain immediate discovery interview against Ray Bitar, Full Tilt CEO, as well as Chris Ferguson, a professional player and renowned poker guru. Gowen claims that Bitar and Ferguson have vital information to the court hearings, such as e-mails, telephone records and personal knowledge of the alleged misconduct. Gowen’s attorneys are concerned that such information could be lost or destroyed if Bitar and Ferguson are not contacted immediately.
A settlement in the court proceedings could leave Gowen with $40 million that she has asked the court to grant her, which would equal one percent ownership of the company before her dismissal. Full Tilt is currently worth $4 billion.
This follows a recent motion to dismiss her lawsuit, on behalf of co-defendents Phil Ivey, John Juanda and Howard Lederer. Each professional player has said that they were named for their fame and not because Gowen had a case against them.
Full Tilt had offered Gowen a six-figure payment as recompense; however she declined and shortly afterward filed the lawsuit. Among the list of defendants are Full Tilt Poker, Tiltware LLC, Tiltproof, Pocket Kings Ltd, Kolyma Corporation, A.V.V. Raymond J. Bitar, Howard Lederer, Patrick Antonius, Andrew Bloch, Phillip Ivey, Gus Hansen, Christopher Ferguson, John Juanda, Erick Lindgren, Erik Seidel, Jennifer Harmon-Traniello, Michael Matusow, Allen Cunningham and Phillip Gordon.
According to Gowen, each defendant, including the progessional players, were directors and shareholders of the company and all actions taken were done with their authorization and consent. Gowen claims that Bitar has made the payment as well as the settlement agreement on behalf of the professional team.
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