August 12 2012, PokerNews Staff

Former consulting head of public relations for Full Tilt Poker, Michele Clayborne issued a statement to PokerNews over the weekend.

Since Black Friday, many speculated that Clayborne was posting under the name “FTPDoug” on the TwoPlusTwo Forums. In the months following Black Friday, the posts on TwoPlusTwo from “FTPDoug” were intended to provide the affected player base with updates on the status of the site and the repayment of funds.

The true identity of “FTPDoug” was revealed last week following the announcement of the PokerStars’ acquisition of Full Tilt Poker’s assets.

Below you’ll find Clayborne’s statement in full regarding the events since Black Friday and FTPDoug:

I read with pleasure the recent statement on Pokernews.com from Shyam Marcus, Poker Room Manager at Full Tilt Poker. Although, I am not an online poker player, the PokerStars/FTP acquisition hopefully brings an end to this unfortunate period in online gaming and will restore both faith in the sport and the return of all funds to FTP players.

As the former Consulting Head of PR for FTP with over 15 years of global experience in public relations, the revelation of the true identity of FTPDoug was long over due. Until this announcement, I too was not aware of this person’s identity, although I asked for clarification on numerous occasions due to the fact that some unreliable and misleading poker press deemed FTPDoug to be me with 100 percent certainty – now known to be 100 percent false. Nor, was I ever notified of any posting prior, or asked to review them. I saw them for the first time when the public did.

For further clarification, I was also not informed about any of the intricate details of the financial inner workings of the FTP organization, nor should I have been. I was not an employee of the company, nor is investor relations, finances or accounting, my area of expertise.

I am and will always be loyal to my PR clients. Therefore, I never commented on this tragic matter publicly, even though I was the target of several untrue and malicious postings that were damaging to my reputation. As a professional, I would never intentionally mislead the public. Any PR statements I have ever released were under my own name (not FTPDoug or any other pseudonym) and all information for my press releases were both provided and expressly approved by FTP.

During complicated, crisis situations such as the one with FTP, it is unfortunate that there are unreliable poker news sites and bloggers that disseminate self-serving, inaccurate and misleading information to poker playing public – further clouding an already tense situation. You deserve better. Thank you to Pokernews.com and TwoPlusTwo for posting the truth.

I look forward with great optimism for a speedy resolution for all of the players and fruitful partnership between PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker.

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