Full Tilt Poker: Purchase Bid Accepted

Full Tilt Poker (FTP) has announced that it has entered into an exclusive agreement with French businessman Laurent Tapie of Groupe Bernard Tapie. The agreement will see the French cooperation purchase FullTiltPoker.com and all its related assets.

FTP has been struggling in recent months to find someone who will take over the now almost bankrupt online poker giant.

All of FTP problems began back in April 2011 when the US Department of Justice (DoJ) brought federal indictments against the founders, owners and board of directors that had some of the world’s best professional poker players as its members.

In addition the DoJ also seized the dot.com domains and back accounts of FTP and several other large online poker rooms that were violating US anti-gambling laws. The other poker rooms started negotiating with the DoJ, agreed to return American players’ funds back and stop accepting US players.

FTP was not able to do so since it was short of money, blaming frozen bank accounts and a payment processing firm that allegedly stole tens of millions from FTP. Within a couple of months the company had 2 of its French and Alderney interactive gaming licenses suspended and had to freeze its operation.

Not a single poker player from anywhere in the world has been able to play on the FTP platform and many are not able to withdraw their funds out of their poker player accounts.

Last week the DoJ amended the charges against FTP bosses, accusing them of running a Ponzi scheme by utilizing the funds of new players to pay existing winning players. It is also accused of using players’ funds to pay bonuses to board members, which completely goes against industry standards.

Following this the Alderney Gambling Control Commission (AGCC) completely revoked FTP license claiming that FTP has misled investigators with regards to its operational integrity.

A statement from FTP stated that “This agreement, which includes the repayment of FullTiltPoker.com’s worldwide 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.””