Poker Pro Mike Matusow Denies $700k Full Tilt Poker Debt Accusations

This week, the French suitors who are looking to acquire Full Tilt Poker blame its pros for essentially “holding up the deal”.  Those pros include the likes of Mike Matusow.

Mr. Matusow has since gone on the defensive, blasting the Groupe Bernard Tapie (GBT) claims that he personally owes $700,000 while the total debt amongst pros sits at a staggering $16.5 million.  Groupe Bernard Tapie says it planned to purchase the now shuttered FTP for $80 million.

Groupe Bernard Tapie issued this statement:  “The poker community, and particularly that of former players of Full Tilt waiting to recover their funds, deserves to know the reality of the behavior of some major figures in poker who say sorry for the situation …who blame the former leaders, but refrain to indicate how much they have borrowed from Full Tilt, and lost, playing on the site.”

Matusow responded via Twitter (with surprisingly zero expletives:  “For all my fans out there just to let u all know i dont owe full tilt anything why my name is mentioned i dont know.”

GBT’s attorney Behn Dayanim cited Matusow specifically in an interview last week:

“Nearly $700K. Mr. Matusow has not responded to our attempts to reach him to discuss the matter.”

Full Tilt Poker was forced to exit the US market last April after the US Justice Department indicted two of its executives for alleged money laundering and bank fraud.  Subsequently in late June, the one time second largest online poker room was shut down by its licensing arm in Europe for failure to pay players. 

- Ace King, Gambling911.com