DoJ Refuses Lederer Claim

US Attorney says that recent DiCristina precedent is not applicable

US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Preet Bharara has opposed Black Friday defendant Howard Lederer’s attempt to leverage the DiCristina judgement that poker is a game of both skill and chance into a reconsideration of the civil claims against him.

Lederer legal representatives’ efforts in persuading Judge Leonard B. Sand that based on Judge Jack Weinstein’s DiCristina judgement, further consideration of the Full Tilt Poker civil claims and the status of poker in terms of the Illegal Gambling Business Act would be justified.

In response to Lederer’s appeal, Bharara forwarded a written argument to Judge Sand asserting that the government does not believe reconsideration is appropriate or necessary as well as that Weinstein finding is not binding outside the eastern district of New York.

Bharara quoted as a precedent of his own that in the criminal cases against e-cash processors John Campos and Chad Ely an argument for dismissal on similar grounds had been rejected by Judge Lewis Kaplan. He also implied that further statutory claims not depending on the IGBA may be in prospect.