Laurent Tapie, of Bernard Tapie Group, who earlier announced their agreement to acquire Full Tilt Poker, gave his first interview to iGamingFrance shortly after. The agreement still has several conditions to be met, but does include the guarantee to repay Full Tilt players around the world. First task is brokering a deal with the DOJ over the $1 Billion civil charges. Rumor is this meeting is scheduled to begin within a week.
Most surprisingly is their plan to retain the "Full Tilt Poker" brand name, and re-open in January 2012. "The brand is not in question is a well known brand and the technology is widely recognized as perhaps the best in the industry. The company management is in question and will be changed (if the recovery is completed). I think we have the tools necessary to place the site among the industry leaders in online poker."
iGamingFrance speculates Tapie could try to get the seized funds that can be confirmed as player funds, released from the $331M of reported DOJ seizures.
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Friday, September 30, 2011
Full Tilt Poker and Groupe Bernard Tapie Sign Acquisition Agreement
Full Tilt Poker has released an announcement that the company has signed an acquisition agreement with Groupe Bernard Tapie, according to PokerStrategy, who has been publishing FTP's press releases exclusively the last few weeks.
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"Full Tilt Poker and Groupe Bernard Tapie Sign Acquisition Agreement
Dublin, Ireland (September 30, 2011) Laurent Tapie, Managing Director of ‘Groupe Bernard Tapie’ announced today that the group has signed an exclusive agreement with the Board of Directors of Full Tilt Poker to acquire the company and all of its associated assets.
This agreement, which includes the repayment of Full Tilt Poker’s world-wide players in full, is subject to several conditions; the first of which is a favorable resolution with the United States Department of Justice. Discussions with the United States Department of Justice will begin immediately.
‘Groupe Bernard Tapie’ has over 30 years of experience in the salvation of financially distressed businesses, with over 40 companies acquired and managed to profitability, the most well-known being the sport equipment giant, Adidas."
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Thursday, September 29, 2011
Full Tilt Poker Press Release Responding to AGCC License Loss
Full Tilt Poker provided a press release response to the AGCC revoking their license earlier today.
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"AGCC DEALS A BLOW TO FULL TILT POKER PLAYERS AS ‘INVESTOR CLOSE TO A DEAL’ TESTIMONY IS DISREGARDED
On September 19, 2011, the Alderney Gambling Control Commission reconvened the private hearing originally held on July 26, 2011, regarding its suspension of Full Tilt Poker’s operating licenses.
During the hearing, Full Tilt Poker offered the testimony of an investor interested in acquiring the company. The interested investor testified before the Commission as to its advanced status of negotiations with the company and the terms and conditions of a potential purchase. Full Tilt Poker requested a 30-day adjournment of the hearing to allow for transition of the company to the new investment team.
Today, the Commission announced its decision to revoke three of the four Full Tilt Poker operating licenses, despite the weight of evidence presented at the hearing by Full Tilt Poker of investor interest in acquiring the company. The Commission’s decision to revoke Full Tilt Poker’s operating licenses makes it more difficult to execute the sale of the company and hence repay its players.
Throughout the last few months, Full Tilt Poker has been totally committed to ensuring repayment of its players in full — a commitment that it has expressed repeatedly to the Commission and the company believed that it was engaged in a collaborative effort with the Commission to repay its players.
Notwithstanding the potential damage done by the Commission and its disregard for our players, Full Tilt Poker remains committed to repaying its players in full and continues in active negotiations. A further statement will follow shortly."
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DOJ Releases New Statement on Full Tilt Poker and Suggests Some Funds May Be Returned
After the amended complaint in United States v. Pokerstars et al., 11 Civ. 2564 (LBS), was filed on September 22, 2011, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York received a number of new inquiries from individuals regarding the recovery of their funds from Full Tilt Poker.
By way of background, in April of 2011, this Office entered into a domain-name use agreement with Full Tilt Poker. That agreement, among other things, expressly authorized Full Tilt Poker to return player funds to players. However, as the September 22 amended complaint alleges, Full Tilt Poker did not in fact have player funds on hand to return to players. Instead, the amended complaint alleges that Full Tilt Poker had, among other things, (a) transferred significant amounts of players’ real money deposits to principals of the company, while (b) allowing many players to continue to gamble, and “win” and “lose,” with phantom credits in their player accounts.
At this time, this Office, together with the FBI and other agencies, is attempting to trace, secure and forfeit as much as possible of the funds derived from operation of the fraud committed by Full Tilt Poker and its board members that is alleged in the amended complaint. The Office is also attempting to obtain and examine the books and records of Full Tilt Poker. Many of those books and records are kept overseas. The return of forfeited funds to victims of the alleged fraud may be possible, but will depend on several factors, including the successful conclusion of the litigation, the amount of funds seized and ordered forfeited by the court, and compliance with other procedures the Department of Justice may eventually establish regarding return of forfeited funds to victims who lost money as a result of the alleged fraudulent conduct.
We cannot predict the duration of proceedings in this case, other than to state that they will last for many months at the least. We will apprise victims of the alleged fraud of future developments as appropriate. General information regarding what is known as “remission” (i.e., return to victims) of funds that have been seized and forfeited is set forth in Department of Justice regulations found at 28 C.F.R. Part 9.
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By way of background, in April of 2011, this Office entered into a domain-name use agreement with Full Tilt Poker. That agreement, among other things, expressly authorized Full Tilt Poker to return player funds to players. However, as the September 22 amended complaint alleges, Full Tilt Poker did not in fact have player funds on hand to return to players. Instead, the amended complaint alleges that Full Tilt Poker had, among other things, (a) transferred significant amounts of players’ real money deposits to principals of the company, while (b) allowing many players to continue to gamble, and “win” and “lose,” with phantom credits in their player accounts.
At this time, this Office, together with the FBI and other agencies, is attempting to trace, secure and forfeit as much as possible of the funds derived from operation of the fraud committed by Full Tilt Poker and its board members that is alleged in the amended complaint. The Office is also attempting to obtain and examine the books and records of Full Tilt Poker. Many of those books and records are kept overseas. The return of forfeited funds to victims of the alleged fraud may be possible, but will depend on several factors, including the successful conclusion of the litigation, the amount of funds seized and ordered forfeited by the court, and compliance with other procedures the Department of Justice may eventually establish regarding return of forfeited funds to victims who lost money as a result of the alleged fraudulent conduct.
We cannot predict the duration of proceedings in this case, other than to state that they will last for many months at the least. We will apprise victims of the alleged fraud of future developments as appropriate. General information regarding what is known as “remission” (i.e., return to victims) of funds that have been seized and forfeited is set forth in Department of Justice regulations found at 28 C.F.R. Part 9.
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Alderney Revokes Full Tilt Poker Gaming License, Directs Players to Authorities
The Alderney Gambling Control Commission (AGCC) revoked the licenses of Full Tilt Poker and it's subsidiaries including Vantage Limited, Filco Limited, and Oxalic Limited effective immediately. Their reasoning was "serious breaches of AGCC regulations include false reporting, unauthorised provision of credit, and failure to report material event."
The AGCC also made clear they are not responsible for player balances. "Unresolved claims by players against FTP become a matter for the police and civil authorities. Now that FTP’s licences have been revoked, AGCC no longer has jurisdiction over these companies."
The PPA (Poker Players Alliance) posted instructions on how to file a claim with the DOJ, but there is no guarantee anything will come of it. However there are currently no other means to make a claim for your Full Tilt player balance.
The Determination Notice from the AGCC also confirms that Full Tilt was crediting players for deposits they could never actually process, and that this "ACH Backlog" amounts to $128 Million of the missing funds.
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The AGCC also made clear they are not responsible for player balances. "Unresolved claims by players against FTP become a matter for the police and civil authorities. Now that FTP’s licences have been revoked, AGCC no longer has jurisdiction over these companies."
The PPA (Poker Players Alliance) posted instructions on how to file a claim with the DOJ, but there is no guarantee anything will come of it. However there are currently no other means to make a claim for your Full Tilt player balance.
The Determination Notice from the AGCC also confirms that Full Tilt was crediting players for deposits they could never actually process, and that this "ACH Backlog" amounts to $128 Million of the missing funds.
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Thursday, September 01, 2011
Entraction Will Completely Block Canada, Russia, Turkey, Norway, Israel
The Entraction Poker Network will completely block all players from Canada, Russia, Turkey, Norway, and Israel as of September 29th. This includes all current players from those countries, and their deals will be terminated.
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