September 30 2011, Elaine Chaivarlis

On Friday, Full Tilt Poker announced on PokerStrategy.com that an acquisition agreement was signed with the Bernard Tapie Group. This comes just one day after the Alderney Gambling Control Commission revoked Full Tilt Poker’s license.

The announcement was made by Laurent Tapie, managing director of the Bernard Tapie Group.

Laurent Tapie is the son of Bernard Tapie, a French businessman and politician. Bernard Tapie is credited with rebuilding a number of bankrupt companies and making them profitable - his most famous is Adidas, which he owned from 1990 to 1993. He also owned a cycling team that won the Tour de France twice and a soccer club that won the French Championship five times in a row, as well as the Champions League in 1993. Bernard Tapie’s record isn’t only littered with wins however, in 1993, he was accused of fixing a match between his soccer club and another, for which he served a seven-month prison sentence. Tapie was also convicted of tax fraud and was sued by his banker for repayment of a $240 million loan.

Reprinted below is the press release in full:

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.

Follow PokerNews on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news.

Follow Elaine Chaivarlis on Twitter – @LaneyLV

September 29 2011, Chad Holloway

After the Alderney Gaming Control Commission (AGCC) announced the revocation of Full Tilt Poker’s license, the site released a statement to PokerStrategy. In the statement, FTP claims an “interested investor testified before the Commission” during the September 19, 2011 hearing; however, as a result of revoking the license, the AGCC’s decision “makes it more difficult to execute the sale of the company and hence repay its players.”

The statement concluded: “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.”

On an unrelated note, the U.S. Department of Justice released an update of its own regarding player funds. The update was issued as part of the Department of Justice’s Victim Notification System, where the “government attempts to identify each victim in a given case, and to provide those victims with the information necessary to access the Victim Notification System.”

In the update, the DOJ assures victims that the FBI and other agencies are attempting to secure as many FTP funds and records as they can, with the possibility of returning the “forfeited funds to victims.” However, the DOJ admits that this is not certain and would be contingent upon many factors including the amount seized, successful litigation, and other procedures. In regards to a time frame, the DOJ states: “We cannot predict the duration of proceedings in this case, other than to state that they will last for many months at the least.”

Reprinted below is the DOJ’s statement in full:

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.

For news, updates, and more follow PokerNews on Twitter and Facebook.

Follow Chad Holloway on Twitter – @ChadAHolloway