French Investors Buy US Online Poker Giant
In what could be a ray of hope for Canadian players who filed the class action lawsuit against Full Tilt Poker (FTP), a high profile French investment group has reached an agreement with the US Department of Justice.
The deal will hopefully result in the US and Canadian players - who were collectively credited U.S. $150 million into their accounts by online gaming site Full Tilt Poker, but were never paid - finally getting their money back.
On April 15 this year, the government cracked down on three online poker sites including Full Tilt Poker, once the world's second-most-popular online poker site.
The civil suit filed by the government against the three companies alleged that they were involved in criminal activities like, money laundering, bank fraud and operating a gaming establishment illegally. It sought U.S. $ 3 billion from the three companies, of which $ 1 billion were from Full Tilt.
The government also indicted Raymond Bitar, Full Tilt Poker's current chief executive and accused the owners and executives of a "Ponzi scheme" where they paid themselves $444 million even as funds owed to players dwindled.
Groupe Bernard Tapie Rescues FTP From Disaster
Into this murky scene has now stepped a high profile investor from France called Groupe Bernard Tapie, which has signed an agreement with the US Department of Justice. The complex deal involves several steps that need to be taken by the various stake holders before the players can get the money owed to them.
The first phase requires the US poker site Full Tilt Poker to decide on how best to settle the pending civil suit against the site's owner brought against them by the US Department of Justice. As per the agreement, FTP will have to forfeit their poker company to the US government.
At this juncture, the Groupe Bernard Tapie will be allowed to step in and purchase the FTP assets that were in custody of the government for a price of $80 million.
The government might give to the investor some of the money that it has seized from bank accounts associated with Full Tilt. If this money is accounted for, the Groupe Bernard Tapie would actually end up paying about $40 million for the assets.
These funds would eventually be used by the government to pay back the players. Tapie will then try and relaunch the Full Tilt poker site in other countries. Many players are hoping that Tapie will relaunch Full Tilt in Canada, considering that several of the site's players moved to Canada for the sole purpose of playing poker.
Full Tilt which was licensed in the Channel Islands before its licence to operate world-wide was revoked would require the imposition of a new federal law allowing online poker before it can resume U.S. operations.
This agreement also envisages that the investors "repay or make whole" poker players from outside the U.S. who might be owed another $150 million.
Under this deal, Bitar, who is currently not residing in the U.S., would not profit from the sale or get a stake in the new version of the company. He has not been arrested on these charges nor has he responded to them. However, most of the current 23 shareholders will get a small piece of the future pie.
