Finally, a preemptive move by the Epic Poker League’s Standards and Conduct Committee! On Thursday the Epic Poker League announced that both Chris Ferguson and Howard Lederer (the brother of EPL Commissioner Annie Duke) were both suspended indefinitely by the league.

In a statement released on the Epic Poker League website, Standards and Conduct Committee Chairman Stephen Martin said, “The Committee voted to suspend Howard Lederer and Chris Ferguson indefinitely, pending the outcome of the Department of Justice’s action.”

“Martin emphasized the following factors in the Committee’s decision:

(1) Although the Amended Complaint constitutes a civil, and not criminal, action and facts are alleged but not yet proven, “the specificity of the allegations and the fact they came from the United States government made this the right course of action in the best interests of the players in the League.”

(2) “The government chose to name Howard Lederer and Chris Ferguson individually in their roles as members of the board of directors Full Tilt.”

(3) The Committee will continue to monitor the legal actions. “If other members are named in the actions, the Committee will consider additional disciplinary action.”

Lederer and Ferguson are both 5-year card-holders for the EPL, but neither has participated in any of the tournaments (according to the EPL statement Lederer has signed the league’s Player Disciplinary Policy and the Players’ Code of Conduct documents, Ferguson has not) and it was unlikely that either player would be participating in any tournaments until the Full Tilt poker matter was resolved.

The third person named in the amended complaint, Rafe Furst, is not an Epic Poker League card-holder, but would likely be barred from participating in any of the league’s Pro/Am tournaments which serve as a satellite to the exclusive Main Events.

The EPL Standards and Conduct Committee is made up primarily of poker players, as well as Martin who works as an independent consultant for the EPL. Here is a look at the complete Standards and Conduct Committee.

* Stephen Martin (Independent Ethics Advisor), Chair of Committee

* Matt Savage (Tournament Director)

* Eric Baldwin (League Member)

* Andy Bloch (League Member)

* Chad Brown (League Member)

* Joseph Hachem (League Member)

* Michael McDonald (League Member)

* Nick Schulman (League Member)

* Alec Torelli (League Member)

* Annie Duke (Commissioner), Non-Voting Member

*Due to his affiliation with Full Tilt poker Andy Bloch recused himself from the issue.

You can read the entire Epic Poker League statement on the matter at EpicPoker.com

Tags: Allegations, Annie Duke, Card Holder, Chairman Stephen, Chris Ferguson, Committee Chairman, Conduct Committee, Decision 1, Department Of Justice, Disciplinary Action, Disciplinary Policy, Epl, Full tilt Poker, Furst, Howard Lederer, Legal Actions, poker players, Preemptive Move, Specificity, Third Person, United States Government

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 22nd, 2011 at 7:35 am and is filed under Poker News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One Response to “Epic Poker League suspends Lederer and Ferguson”

1. Matthew says:

   September 23, 2011 at 6:46 am

   I wouldn’t like to be them right now…but serves them right. It all comes back to bite you in the butt in the end. Rakefree poker rooms are the only onces worth playing nowadays…after black friday I never switch to anything else.

   1) you save money by not paying rake
   2) the opponents are weaker