The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is investigating a $700 million offer for California-based WPT Enterprises made on behalf of Doyle Brunson by the Las Vegas law firm Goodman & Chesnoff PC. After announcing the offer in July this year, WPT's share price increased rapidly by more than 50 percent, but it went down just as fast when WPT couldn't get any info on the offer from neither Brunson nor his attorneys.
WPT Enterprises is the owner of the World Poker Tour, the world's most popular televised poker show. The World Poker Tour is broadcast in more than 116 countries worldwide, and airs every wednesday night on the Travel Channel. WPT Enterprises is a joint venture between WPT founder Steve Lipscomb and Lyle Berman's Lakes Entertainment Ltd.
Doyle Brunson, who ironically just won $563,485 by finishing 3rd in the WPT Bellagio Five Diamond Poker Classic, is undoubtedly the most famous poker player in the world. He won the World Series of Poker two times in a row (1976 and 1977), and is the author of Super System: A Course on Power Poker, a book that is considered by many poker players as the "Bible of Poker".
Doyle Brunson's offer generated a lot of publicity back in July, and in retrospect looks more like a clumsy publicity stunt, or even worse, an attempt to artificially drive up WPT's share price. Either way, the SEC now launched a formal investigation into the offer. It is specifically investigating whether the offer violated the 1934 Securities Exchange Act, including it's anti-fraud provisions.
Doyle Brunson has so far declined to cooperate with the investigation, citing the Fifth Amendment, and his attorneys have refused to provide the documents the SEC requested. This Friday, the SEC filed an action in the Fort Worth federal district court to enforce subpoenas issued to Brunson's attorneys to provide the requested documents and to give testimony.
More information is available at the SEC's website.