Behn Dayanim, an attorney for Group Bernard Tapie, the French investment group currently in the process of acquiring Full Tilt Poker, told PokerStrategy.com late last week that the takeover is currently “nearing completion,” but unexpected setbacks have arisen. Audits have revealed the financial position of Full Tilt is significantly worse than expected.
If the group does not receive the money, “it creates a serious obstacle to completion of the deal,” Dayanim said.
Reportedly, the millions in players’ debts is not the only impedance to completing the deal, but such a “substantial item” combined with a “worse than expected” financial health of Full Tilt could cause GBT to walk away.
Dayanim told iGaming France that 19 high profile poker players have a combined debt of $16.5m. The list of the major debtors includes Phil Ivey, David Benyamine, Layne Flack and Erick Lindgren, while other players such as with Mike Matusow and Barry Greenstein owe “a smaller, but still significant amount.”
According to cardplayer.com, Ivey and Lindgren both owe $4m, and Benyamine and Flack – who have been in debt since 2007 – owe $2m each. The debts are most likely the result of loans paid directly into the players’ Full Tilt accounts for cash game play and tournament buy-ins.
After attempting to collect the outstanding debts, Dayanim stated that some players have already made arrangements to repay what they owe, but some of them contended that they would only pay if the funds are assigned directly to repaying outstanding player balances.
Barry Greenstein, who admitted to owing $382k, has publicly stated that he owes the money to Full Tilt Poker and not Group Bernard Tapie. He also stated his lack of payment to date was because he ”had no pressure to pay.”
Greenstein had not come forth earlier because it would be “embarrassing” due to his connections with rival PokerStars and, though he believes he could have taken steps to prevent the news of his debt from becoming public, he “thought it would be worse if [he] settled the debt in a way that resulted in the money being flushed down the drain just to avoid embarrassment.”
