AP Visit: I'm going to Costa Rica

[Phil153]

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Any updates?
p.s. Anyone thinking it's NOT a good idea for Nat to go is really, really dumb. As has been said a hundred times, we're NEVER going to get a perfect rock-solid 100%-transparent audit

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It's not about that though. Nat going is marginally better than Nat not going. But since AP are offering to have someone look over their system, AND pay, why send someone who doesn't have a clue about the things that will really matter (by his own admission).

I'm sure AP is professionally run, and that the offices/staff are really quite good. I'm sure their systems and security are fine too. There's too much money and too many investors involved for it not to be. The thing that needs to be discovered is whether current management are on the up and up, and the extent of the cheating. Nat is pretty much unqualified to determine the first and blocked from discovering the second. Anyone who buys the "under audit" reason hasn't been around too long.

I have a feeling AP is buying time to blow this thing off, as well as impress Nat with their operation. If he goes, I have no doubt they'll succeed at both. AP knows they need to "come clean" to the community to take some of the heat off, and inviting a 25yo with little experience of crooks, is a way of doing that without actually revealing anything.

To the guy who makes $300+ an hour, and who said $5000 + expenses isn't fair compensation, that's equivalent to 250K/year. That covers something like 95% of professional salaries. If Nat's time is worth far more than that, and it's such an imposition, then perhaps he should ask AP to invite someone else. Taking a large payment, with talk of non disclosure agreements, is pretty much f'ed up IMO.

A poster above summed it up pretty well:
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AP could come clean with an open letter to the poker community explaining everything that they know about the situation, including names of the cheaters, how it happened, what they are doing to fix the problem, etc., and then invite an entire independent group from the poker community to come down to verify the accuracy of what AP is representing. AP is not doing that. Instead, they appear to have invited an admitted "25 year old kid", who also happens to have technical knowledge and been instrumental in uncovering the cheating at AP, down for a "feel good" visit to their offices in Costa Rica. This is a PR move by AP, nothing more.

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