Juanda Fires Back, Says $5.4m Stolen from Seidel

Juanda Fires Back, Says $5.4m Stolen from Seidel
Pokerlistings Icon
PokerListings Team Editorial Team
Fact Checked: PokerListings
  • Updated: July 2, 2025
  • Read time: 1 min

After six parts and three hours of one-sided commentary from Howard Lederer, at least one Full Tilt shareholder has fired back with a different take on at least some events.

Taken to task in particular in Parts 1 and 6 of the Lederer Files interview, former Full Tilt pro and owner John Juanda made it clear through a series of tweets that Lederer is not giving an entirely accurate picture of the internal goings on at Full Tilt.

Calling Juanda out for not supporting Full Tilt CEO Ray Bitar, not paying back his own loan from the company and for “refusing” to sign the impending deal with PokerStars, Lederer also claimed Juanda was the “second-largest shareholder” in the company.

Not only does Juanda suggest Lederer was incorrect or misleading in his assessment of several situations, he also accuses Full Tilt management of stealing $5.4 million from Erik Seidel.

Juanda’s series of tweets responding to the Lederer Files (through Part 6) in chronological order below:

For the record, Howard Lederer was wrong when he said I was 2nd largest shareholder of FTP! Maybe he REALLY didn’t know!!???#LedererFiles— John Juanda (@LuckBoxJuanda) September 20, 2012

As Ray Bitar’s boss, Howard Lederer should’ve accepted more blames instead of trying to shift blames to everyone else.#LedererFiles— John Juanda (@LuckBoxJuanda) September 20, 2012

I owe FTP $256K, was offered to settle for 80% but declined when I found out Ray, w/boards’ approval,was still taking home 200K+/mo post BF— John Juanda (@LuckBoxJuanda) September 21, 2012

Instead I offered to pay 100% as soon as I could be certain it’d go toward paying players NOT management salary&lawyers fees#LedererFiles— John Juanda (@LuckBoxJuanda) September 21, 2012

Howard didn’t mention in his interview that FTP management also stole 5.4M from my best friend@Erik_Seidel #LedererFiles— John Juanda (@LuckBoxJuanda) September 21, 2012

What would u do in my shoes? Send check to same ppl who just stole from ur buddy?Or wait+hope to pay to the right parties?#LedererFiles— John Juanda (@LuckBoxJuanda) September 21, 2012

When I said ‘right parties’ I didn’t mean @erik_seidel bcos he shouldn’t have priority over the players but he should prolly be next in line— John Juanda (@LuckBoxJuanda) September 21, 2012

Juanda is currently in Cannes, France for the 2012 World Series of Poker Europe and has yet to respond in a more formal capacity. Follow him on Twitter here.