Groupe Bernard Tapie agrees us$ 80 million deal for Full Tilt Poker

"It is a very creative solution. The question now is, with the agreement behind us, how is this going to work? Are the players going to get everything back, what's the process for filing claims, and so on. These are things that the players are concerned about now," Jeff Ifrah, an attorney for Full Tilt Poker, told Reuters.

Separately, the Wall Street Journal said as part of the deal the French investment group will buy Full Tilt for us$ 80 million.

U.S. Justice Department could not immediately be reached for comment by Reuters outside regular U.S. business hours.

U.S. federal prosecutors have called the online poker site a Ponzi scheme and have accused the company's owners and board members of paying themselves half a billion dollars while defrauding players.

Full Tilt Poker had earlier rejected the allegations made by U.S. federal prosecutors.

As part of the agreement, the DoJ has agreed to dismiss civil forfeiture proceedings against FTP, meaning the company’s shareholders are no longer liable in the ongoing legal proceedings, though the arranngement will not impact on the individual parties named in the indictments including Howard Lederer, Chris Ferguson and Ray Bitar.

The deal also stated that current FTP directors could no longer hold any shares in the company.