Do Phil Ivey & Others Owe Full Tilt $18 Mil?

The attorney for Group Bernard Tapie (GBT), the potential purchasers of Full Tilt Poker, issued a statement saying the debts of several high-profile Full Tilt pro players are what's holding up the closing of the deal between GBT and the downtrodden poker room.

GBT attorney Behnam Dyanim recently told Gaming Intelligence that money owed by Phil Ivey, Layne Flack, Barry Greenstein, Mike Matusow, David Benyamine, Erick Lindgren and others could stymie the sale. 

Insiders are reporting that the players owe Full Tilt around $18 million. Ivey and Lindgren are estimated to owe $4 million each, with Flack and Benyamine, who have been indebted to the site since 2007, owing $2 million each. Matusow and Greenstein owe substantially less.

According to Dyanim, this could be "a serious obstacle to completion of the deal."

Groupe Bernard Tapie aims to purchase Full Tilt Poker for $80 million as part of its agreement with the US Department of Justice. Some are speculating that the players will be put on payment plans if the sale is finalized.

The back-due money accrued by way of loans for tournament buy-ins and possible directs transfers to their Full Tilt player accounts so they could participate in cash game play.

On a recent Two Plus Two forum post, Greenstein, who is a PokerStars sponsored pro, admitted to having borrowed $400K to "play on Full Tilt a few years ago, before PokerStars had high stakes games."

He went on to say that he was concerned about whether the repaid money would be put towards the $150 million total owed to Full Tilt Players.

The GBT deal with the DOJ requires that the French investors facilitate paying back non-US players, but places sole responsibility for pursuing compensation on the alleged American victims.

Of the indebted players, Dayanim added: “This isn’t the only issue with the takeover, and the deal won’t end on any one issue — but this is a substantial item.”