The US Department of Justice and Groupe Bernard Tapie (GBT) have finalized a deal that that calls for Full Tilt Poker to forfeit their assets to the DOJ from which GBT will acquire those assets for $80m.
Announced by Full Tilt through a statement on PokerStrategy.com, the agreement provides for GBT “to repay or make whole players outside of the United States” and for the Department of Justice “to permit United States players to request compensation out of the forfeited funds.”
The civil forfeiture proceedings against Full Tilt will be dismissed clearing legal responsibility of the shareholders. However, individual proceedings will remain intact.
A report revealing additional details of the sale including the price and structure of the deal was erroneously leaked by CNN and syndicated by Yahoo! News before being removed hours later. The details were apparently under embargo pending GBT attorney approval.
No timetable was given as to when players can hope to be repaid, nor details on the process players will be required to follow in order to obtain their funds.
“GBT and Full Tilt Poker will now turn to memorializing the final terms of their agreement, to bring this matter to a complete resolution as soon as possible.” The final step in completing the sale requires a vote of approval by Full Tilt shareholders.
Laurent Tapie, Managing Director of Groupe Bernard Tapie, was on the mark. Just over two weeks ago after news that GBT and the DOJ had come to an agreement in principle, Laurent Tapie predicted that an agreement would be drafted and signed in the next 15 days.
