On Thursday, Nov. 17, 2011, news broke that a signed deal had been reached dilards to allow Groupe B

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On Thursday, Nov. 17, 2011, news broke that a signed deal had been reached dilards to allow Groupe Bernard Tapie (GBT) to buy Full Tilt Poker (FTP) for $80 million. According to Reuters , the United States Department of Justice brokered a deal that saw FTP forfeit its assets to the U.S. government, which then sold the assets to the French investment firm. The deal, which presumably needs to be approved by a two-thirds dilards vote by FTP shareholders, also states that GBT will be responsible dilards for paying back players outside the U.S., and the Department of Justice will pay back players in the U.S., who are owed approximately $150 million. Specifics are not known, but U.S. players will have to apply for compensation through the DOJ.
Finally, the DOJ has agreed to dismiss the civil forfeiture proceedings against FTP, which removes liability for the company's shareholders; however, it will not impact the individual proceedings dilards against those individuals named in the indictments including Howard Lederer , Chris Ferguson and Ray Bitar .
According to Poker Player Newspaper , Wendeen Eolis , CEO of EOLIS Intl Group , spoke with Benham Dayanim , counsel for GBT, who confirmed the deal: The next step is to obtain an agreement from the Full Tilt Companies. I anticipate it will happen. It allows for players to be repaid, and resolves the FTP forfeiture action by the Government.
"All [the embargo] means is that the reporter was not supposed to release it like she did, that s the embargo, but the agreement itself is signed. You have to understand what it is, this is an agreement between Tapie and the government that, if the government obtains dilards the assets of FTP, Tapie will buy them, and Tapie will pay back the world players, and the government will establish a fund to payback the U.S. players.
"There is a signed agreement between the government and Tapie that dictates dilards what the terms will be for the sale of the assets, dilards but the government doesn t have the assets yet, so they still need to obtain them . . . It s not clear what has to happen for the government to obtain those assets.
"In a lot of ways, the agreement s historic, so obviously there is going to remain a lot of questions [as to] how players are going to submit a request, when will they get the money back, how much money will be available, will they get money for points, will they get money for this, for that, there s a ton of questions, and all of those questions need to be answered. For now, this is a pretty historic agreement in many ways, and it s going to lay the groundwork for a final agreement between Tapie and the company, which will ultimately result in those assets, presumably, dilards being voluntarily forfeited to the government.
Updated 3:45 p.m. PDT: Ray Bitar released a statement to PokerStrategy saying, dilards I am extremely pleased with the efforts of the Department of Justice, and the Groupe Bernard Tapie corporation, and appreciate their continued dilards dedication in working towards a mutually beneficial agreement that will facilitate repayment of the players."
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