Full Tilt Rescue May Give Stake to Customers
A proposed rescue of Full Tilt Poker by a family-owned French investment company could involve offering equity stakes to some of the troubled website’s thousands of customers, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The investor, Groupe Bernard Tapie, said Friday it had provisionally agreed to acquire the assets of the once-highflying Internet poker company. The website has been shut down since June and faces a U.S. government civil suit that seeks $1 billion in restitution for alleged bank fraud, money laundering and illegal operations. Full Tilt has denied the allegations.
The government suit also alleges the site’s owners violated the trust of players and defrauded them while taking $444 million in payments for themselves. The company has denied it constituted a “Ponzi scheme.”
