Case 2:11-cv-08591-MMM-AGR Document 1 Filed 10/17/11 Page 1 of 15 Page ID #:1 c, Ci; - i'a 'n € Sanai, SB#150387 1 Cyrus M. f< SANAIS -{ C:'= (r:r.;: i,' (a 2 433 North Camden Drive r !1 { -r'l "-. Suite 600 l'il:? -l 7 t:r.. t r 3 Beverly Hills, Californiq 90210 .->-{--| rfl Telephone: (irO) 7 17 -9840 - i, T lrr a't C] 4 cyrus@)sanalslaw.com ,.| oc ;.(.'5f) (., for Lary Kennedy and Greg Omotoy 5 Counsel 7tt { 6 1 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT OF TT{E CENTRAL DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 9 LARY KENNEDY, an individual, and GREG ) Case No.: 1_0 oMoroY'anindividuar 11 Plaintiffs, r iC"u-L1",o$"[9Jml1,#w') t2 vs. (I) MONEY HAD AND RECEIVED (2) I.INruST ENRICHMENT 13 CHRIS FERGUSON, an individual; (3) RELIEF UNDER CONSUMERS LEGAL HOWARD LEDERER, an individual; REMEDY ACT, CALIFORNIA CIVIL CODE 74 RAYMOND BITA& an individual; PHILLP SECTION I75O; GORDON, an individual; ANDY BLOCH, an (4) FRAUD 15 individual; PHIL IVEY, an individual;, (5) RELIEF UNDER CALIFORNIA PERRY FRIEDMAN, an individual; JOHN BUSINESS A}ID PROFESSIONS CODE L6 ruANDA, an individual; ERIK LINDGREN, SECTTON 17200 ET SEQ. an individual; ERIK SEIDEL, an individual; (6) RELIEF UNDER THE RACKETEER. 77 MCIIAEL MATUSOW, an individual; INFLUENCED CORRUPT ALLEN CUNNINGHAIVI, an individual; GUS oRGANIZATIONS ACT (',RICO*), 18 U.S.C. 18 HANSEN, an individual; PATRIK $ le64 ET SEQ; ANTOMUS, an individual; RAFE FURST, an (7) CONSTRUCTTVE TRUST 19 individual; TILTWARE LLC, a California limited liability company; POCKET KINGS JURY DEMAND 20 LTD, an Irish limited company; KOLYMA CORPORATION A. V . V., a Curacao CLASS ACTION UNDER FRCP 23, CAL. 2L company; POCKET KINGS CONSULTING CTV. CODE SECTION I75O AND BUS. & LTD., an lrish limited liability company; PROF. CODE SECTION I72OO 22 FILCO LTD., a limited company; VANTAGE LTD., a limited company; RANSTON LTD., a 23 limited company; MAIL MEDIA LTD., a limited company; OXALIC LTD., a limited 24 company; ORIMC LTD., a limited company; IAN IMRICH, an individual; COZEN 25 O'CONNO& a limited liability partnership; and DOES I through 10, inclusive, 26 Defendants. 27 28 -l- COMPLAINT Case 2:11-cv-08591-MMM-AGR Document 1 Filed 10/17/11 Page 2 of 15 Page ID #:2 1 2 3 Plaintiffs, Lary Kennedy and Greg Omotoy hereby allege as follows: 4 JURISDICTION 5 6 l. This Court has jurisdiction pursuant to 28 USC $1331. Venue is proper in this 7 distict and Division because the Plaintiffs and certain of the Defendants identified below are I residents of Los Angeles County. 9 10 TIIE PARTIES 11 2. Plaintifl LARY KENNEDY ("Kennedy"), is apoker player who resides in the t2 County of Los Angeles, State of California 13 3. Plaintifi GREG OMOTOY ("Omotoy"), resides in the County of Los Angeles, 74 State of Califomia. 15 4. Defendant CHRIS FERGUSON ("Ferguson") is, and at all relevant times hereto 16 was, an individual residing in the County of Los Angeles, State of California. t'7 5. Defendant HOWARD LEDERER ("Lederer") is, and at all relevant times hereto 18 was, an individual residing in the County of Clarh State ofNevada Lederer was convicted of 19 illegal bookmaking, i.e. sports wagering. 20 6. Defendant RAYMOND BITAR (*Bitar") is, and at all relevant times hereto was, 2L an individual residing in the County of Los Angeles, State of California- 22 7. Defendant PHILLIP GORDON ("Gordon") is, and at all relevant times hereto was, 23 an individual residing in the County of County of Clark, State of Nevada. 24 8. Defendant ANDY BLOCH ("Bloch") is, and at all relevant times hereto was, an 25 individtral residing in the County of Clark, State of Nevada. 26 9. Defendant PHIL IVEY ("Ivey") is, and at all relevant times hereto was, an 27 individual residing in the County of Clarlq State of Nevada. 2B -2- COMPLAINT Case 2:11-cv-08591-MMM-AGR Document 1 Filed 10/17/11 Page 3 of 15 Page ID #:3 1 10. Defendant PERRY FRIEDMAN ("Friedman") is, and at all relevant times hereto 2 was, an individual residing in the County of Los Angeles, State of California. 3 I l. Defendant JOHN ruANDA ("Juanda") is, and at all relevant times hereto was, an 4 individual residing in the County of Los Angeles, State of California. 5 12. Defendant ERIK LINDGREN ("Lindgren") is, and at all relevant times hereto was, 6 an individual residing in the County of Clarh State of Nevada. 7 13. Defendant ERIK SEIDEL ("Seidel") is, and at all relevant times hereto was, an I individual residing in the County of Clark, State of Nevada. 9 14. Defendant MICHAEL MATUSOW (*Matusow") is, and at all relevant times 10 hereto was, an individual residing in the County of Clarlq State of Nevada. 11 15. Defendant ALLEN CUNNINGIIAM ("Cururingham") is, and at all relevant times L2 hereto w,rs, an individual residing in the County of Clark, State of Nevada. 13 16. Defendant GUS HANSEN ("Hansen") is, and at all relevant times hereto was, a L4 citizen of the Kingdom of Denmark. 15 17. Defendant PATRIK ANTONIUS ("Antonius") is, and at all relevant times hereto 76 was, a citizen of the Republic of Finland. t7 18. Defendant RAFE FURST ("Frust") is, and at all relevant times hereto was, an t-8 individual residing in the County of Los Angeles. L9 19. Defendant IAN IMRICH ("Imrich") is, and at all relevant times hereto was, an 20 individual residing in the County of Los Angeles. 2L 20. Defendant TILTWARE,LLC, aCalifornia limited liability company with an 22 address at 10866 Wilshire Blvd. 4fr Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90024 ("Tiltware"). 23 21. POCKET KINGS LTD. ("Pocket Kings") is an Irish company based in the 24 Republic of Ireland. Defendants are informed and believe and therefore allege that the entire share 25 capital of this entrty is owned by Tilrware. 26 22. KOLYMA CORPORATION A. V. V. ("Kolyma") is a Curacao company based in 21 Curacao. 28 COMPLAINT Case 2:11-cv-08591-MMM-AGR Document 1 Filed 10/17/11 Page 4 of 15 Page ID #:4 1 23. POCKET KINGS CONSULTING LTD. ("PKC") is an Irish limited liability 2 company. 3 24. FILCO LTD., VANTAGE LTD, RANSTON LTD., OXALIC LTD., ORJMC 4 LTD., and MAIL MEDIA LTD. (the "Money Laundering Companies") are companies whose 5 address and jurisdiction of formation are unknown 6 25. COZEN O'CONNOR LLP ("Cozen") is a limited liability parfrrership with an T offrce in Los Angeles County. I 9 COMMON ALLEGATIONS 10 26. Fergusorl Lederer, Bitar, Gordon, Bloc[ Ivey, Juanda, Furst and Friedman (the 11 "Founder Defendants") founded Tilt'ware in 2003, and together with Lindgren, Seidel, Matusow, L2 Cunningham, Hanserq and Antonious comprise the "Individual Defendanrc". Tiltware, Pocket 13 Kings, Kolym4 PKC and the Money Laundering Companies are owned and controlled by the L4 Individual Defendants and were involved in owning, operating, financing and promoting the on- 15 line poker site fulltiltpoker.com until April l5,20ll and operated other websites incorporating L6 the name "Full Tilt Poker" (such entities hereby being known as the "Fulltiltpoker.com Group'). L7 Most of the entities do not operate under their own name, but from time to time adopt the name 18 "Full Tilt Poker"; these entities, which are Kolyma PKC and the Money Laundering Entities, L9 shall be referred to at the "Full Tilt Poker Entities". Defendants Tiltware and Pocket Kings, while 20 members of the Fulltiltpoker.com Group, are not Full Tilt Poker Entities, as these Defendants 2L operate under their own ruune. Each of the Individual Defendants holds an interest in at least one 22 entity which is part of the Fulltiltpoker.com Group. The Individual Defendants and the 23 Fulltiltpoker.com Group comprise an association-in-fact (collectively, the "Full Tilt association- 24 in-fact") which was continuously offering on-line peer-to-peer poker to citizens of the United 25 States, 24 hours aMy, seven days a week from and after October l, 2005 or thereabouts until 26 April 15, 2011, when Bitar, Tiltware, Pocket Kings, Kolym4 PKC and the Money Laundering 27 Companies, among others, received word that a grand jury convened by the Unite States Attorney 28 for the Southern District of New York had indicted them and a forfeiture order for the COMPLAINT Case 2:11-cv-08591-MMM-AGR Document 1 Filed 10/17/11 Page 5 of 15 Page ID #:5 1 fulltiltpoker.com URL and other assets had been granted. The Full Tilt Poker business offered to 2 non-United States citizens was shut down on June 29,2011 when the Alderney Gambling Control 3 Commission suspended the operations of the Defendants' websites due to their violation of 4 Alderney law and failure to return money to players. Imrich was integral in assisting the Founder 5 Defendants, representing from time to time FergusorU the Founder Defendants, Pocket Kings, 6 Tiltware and the Full Tilt Poker Entities in varying capacities as an attorney. 1 27. Peer-to-peer on-line poker is an Internet-based version of California cardrooms I such as the Bicycle Casino and the Commerce Casino (both located in Los Angeles County). At a 9 California cardroom players engage in poker and other card games against each other, and the 10 owner of the cardroom has no stake in the outcome, instead charging a fee to play each hand. 11 28. To play on firlltilpoker.net and parts of the fulltilpoker.com website, a person L2 signed up and is allotted a certain number of chips per day which have no value.