UB Scandal goes deep!

Hopefully everyone is aware of the ongoing scandal that has developed over the last few months... If you haven't then here is a good blog to catch you up on the early parts and a different formatting of the new info. I will try to keep my post a bit more succinct. Catch up on early UB scandal.

If you do already know the background about superusers etc, then read on....

It appears as though this scandal goes all the way to the top. With former owner Russ Hamilton being right in the thick of things, with email addresses linking him directly to superuser accounts.

The newest revelation involves Nat Arem (Who has done a lot of the legwork on this) being threatened. He didn't give details, except that it was not an implicitly physical threat, but he didn't want to take a chance, and that it wasn't the current UB management that made the threat, though I could possibly assume this means it was the former? management, but that's speculation.

There has also been rumors that Russ Hamilton still owns the company, and essentially sold it to himself, which has yet to be proven because public records on the transaction are very limited, but I wouldn't be surprised if the old and new management are very far removed from each other.

Here is the summary....

(Credit to original writer)

Here is a very short cliffnote of cliffnote summary for those of us who are time-challenged. What follows will be enough for the vast public (even non-poker people) who just want to know what happened. For details, read the entire thread and/or sort through the threads to selectively digest parts which you are interested in. Again, below is the summary of all summaries and (warning) it is short, leaving out details that others in the forum can provide or point you toward.

#1 – A popular online poker site, Ultimate Bet, discovered suspicious activity within its poker site through a combination of internal discovery and tips from poker players.

#2 – Ultimate Bet (herein “UB”) issued a press release announcing that several player accounts were closed as a result of their investigation into the manner. UB called these accounts “superuser” accounts and gave one such account a name – “NioNio.”

#3 – UB publicly stated the method through which the NioNio account (and other accounts involved) practiced unfair play was by gaining access to players’ hole cards. This was possible, UB stated in a press release, through a hole in their underlying software – namely, the audit system functionality built-in to the overall system was misused or abused. UB hired a third party consultancy to investigate. Many people believed that the issue would end there. Initial money refunds were made by UB to players who had lost money to the acknowledged superuser accounts.

#4 – Two unexpected events would draw further attention from the poker community and thus, lead to heightened scrutiny. First, UB stepped up its PR (public relations) efforts to quell or mitigate the damage to its reputation and perception of both cover up and rigged playing environment. Second, an anonymous person posted on a popular poker community forum (2+2) claiming to be a UB employee. These posts (by handle “brainwashdodo”) ignited a firestorm of interest.

#5 – brainwashdodo’s accusations that UB insiders were involved were thinly veiled but for the most part, he/she leaked account data which no one outside of UB’s employment should be able to access. Much of the data revolved around account transactions of suspected “superuser” accounts. It also included movement of money to/from “superuser” accounts and UB account of popular t.v. poker players which aroused even more interest and no shortage of semi-hysteria.This gave brainwashdodo some benefit of doubt and some credibility.

#6 – Poker community at 2+2 began to rigorously dissect the leaked information from brainwashdodo. Further, players began investigating other aspects of the situation such as : a) UB ownership history, b) UB software development and programmers involved, c) statistical histories relating to publicly disclosed superuser accounts, and d) anomalies pertaining to other past and current UB player accounts.

#7 – UB players began to send inquiries into UB about other player accounts believed to have statistically suspicious play and win patterns. Sure enough, UB confirmed many of these submissions. UB would later issue a follow up press release announcing additional superuser account names. With each new superuser account revealed, some I the poker community focused on the expanding refund pool but almost all players would hunker down and focus on the real question … “Who is behind the cheating? And what are the specific implications and broader ramifications?

#8 – UB steps up its PR by deploying its longtime spokesperson Annie Duke to conduct interviews. UB’s position and messages become routinely consistent: all of today’s problems are a consequence of yesterday’s ownership and their blunders. The “new” ownership is working to sort through it all. Again, the PR (as before) seems to have drawn more suspicion and scrutiny to the matter then deflect it. Now, the poker community gets even deeper into its investigation of the ownership structure (it seems to hold the golden keys to everything and provides all answers) AND catching the bad guys (vs. a shared focus on unearthing more and more accounts for the short term gain of cash refunds). The 2+2 community’s threads begin to reflect a sentiment of vigilance, vengeance, ad justice.

#9 – Meanwhile, poker community continues to analyze all of the suspicious accounts. Nat Arem, central to outing the owner of Absolute Poker who cheated his customers out of millions, is again at the center of the efforts to unearth the truth. Nat and rest of gang begin to hone I on a handful of publicly outed superuser accounts. The trail of evidence leads them to a groundbreaking finding!

#10 – The superuser account at the heart of this hub-and-spoke chain of accounts involved in cheating belong to none other than UB owner and poker pro Russ Hamilton. The hard evidence was obtained through UB account records, addresses, and property records. It is discovered that Russ is not acting alone. He has conspirators. Poker community is now following the trails of evidence to identify those conspirators.

There is where things have been left off.

A lot of open questions still remain but many believe that they will all come to light in due time. The investigation is more in-depth and faster than ever now. So, by the time you read this it will already be outdated.

Here are some of those open questions posed in the forums at random times:
Q: Who is Russ Hamilton’s partners in crime?
Q: What is the current UB ownership structure?Q: How extensive and deep is the UB software vulnerability? (note: This is relevant as the underlying software is used in a host of their poker sites in a licensee/licensor model of delivery)
Q: How much total money has been siphoned off the poker public by these crooks?
Q: What are the legal recourse available and should players even seek legal recourse? Could they? Looks like there is recent precedence of racketeering, money laudering, and tax evasion charges with racketeering being the one that sticks but it is all conjecture at this point due to the ext question which is --
Q: Who do we report this evidence backed crime to? FBI? IRS? State AGs? Maistream media? Grassroots outing campaign?
Q: What role did Freddy Deeb, Phil Helmuth, and Annie Duke have? (as of now, there is no determination until more data is discovered)
Q: Is Russ a limb or the head of this ring of fraud or racket? Is he the mastermind or the puppet?
Q: What does this mean for other, larger poker sites that essentially operate under the same rules (that is, not much rules)?
Q: Are the public faces like Annie Duke and Howard Lederer going to “spin” this around to make a case for the regulated, legalization of online poker and in so doing evade the real question of “are YOU directly or indirectly involved in this scandal?” Can they continue on as self-appointed ambassadors of poker and de facto self-appointed representatives of player rights when they are sitting on both sides of the fence? No one has accused either of them formally yet but the perception problem alone brings problems of their visible roles.

The list of questions fall off the page and fill a book.

To end: More is believed to be discovered. All are staying tuned for those breaking news as real life really indeed is better than fiction.

I'm sure I screwed this up as it's based on recall of reading the thread. Save your attacks if I made mistakes and just focus on correctig any. I just figured it was better to summarize than not.

Added by Kurt:

Nat Arem (Who has done a large amount of investigating and legwork) threatened by an unknown party. He has decided to no longer help the investigation.

So basically... If you play at UB, stop. This wormhole goes deeper than anyone imagined. I have removed them from my rakeback site, and will try to update any other big developments.

-Kurt