GBT Warns That Debts Must Be Paid Back

Published on February 2nd, 2012 7:10 pm EST

Groupe Bernard Tapie went on the offensive earlier today, informing a number of major poker media sites (Pokerlistings, etc) that outstanding debts to Full Tilt Poker, from the likes of Phil Ivey and Mike Matusow, might create a "serious obstacle" to any deal going through if they remain unpaid.

According to GBT lawyer Behn Dayanim, a number of players still owe significant sums of money to Full Tilt Poker. The players that were specifically named by Dayanim were Phil Ivey, Layne Flack, David Benyamine and Erik Lindgren. Dayanim also said that Barry Greenstein, Mike Matusow and others owe "a smaller but still significant amount."

All told, Full Tilt Poker is reportedly owed between $10 and $20 million for these unpaid player debts.

Dayanim ended his statement to Pokerlistings with:

"If the money doesn't come in, it creates a serious obstacle to completion of the deal. 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."

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This isn't the first time that we've heard of a player owing Full Tilt Poker a significant sum of money.

In their response to Phil Ivey's lawsuit (which he eventually dropped) against the company, Tiltware LLC claimed that Ivey owed a "large sum of money" to the site.

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Barry Greenstein has responded to the allegations from Dayanim - you can read his response here (2+2). According to Greenstein, he borrowed $400,000 from Full Tilt "a few years ago" in order to participate in the high stakes games on the site.

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It will be interesting to see if any of the other players named by Dayanim also make statements..

Source: Pokerlistings.com - Unpaid Pro Debts "Serious Obstacle" in FTP Deal

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Filed Under: Online Poker Rooms