According to an inside source at Full Tilt Poker who communicated with EGamingReview magazine, the United States Department of Justice has unfrozen one large Bank of Ireland account belonging to Full Tilt Poker and its co-founder Raymond Bitar. The account was said to contain nearly a third of the US$100 million to $150 million that the source claimed is still owed to US players.

Although it was only one of nine Full Tilt Poker accounts frozen in Ireland from a total of 76 from the April 15th Black Friday indictments it seemed to hold well over $30 million.

Rumors of Full Tilt Poker seeking an investor to pump in at least $150 million to Full Tilt to facilitate the player fund returns in exchange for equity were confirmed, but no credible investor has been found yet.

Further information from the source gave corroboration to the $60 million shortfall quoted in the DOJ's press release regarding the Bradley Franzen guilty plea this week where it was stated Full Tilt Poker's inability to find a payment processor to process transactions involving US player accounts. The company was facing the shortfall because it continued to credit funds to player accounts despite being unable to actually debit (or “pull”) funds from customers.”

Lastly, the source explained that Full Tilt’s inability to unfreeze funds is not limited to those accounts seized in the 15 April indictments.

“Banks that weren’t even subject to restraining orders started shutting down because they thought ‘we’ve got to be careful, the Americans are after us.’ We actually had to ask the prosecutors to call these banks and tell them they weren’t interested in them.”

He added the repayment of US players was a complex issue, one which he hoped would be resolved sooner rather than later. “There are a lot of factors involved. Some of that is the $60m backlog referenced in the Franzen case, some is the bank accounts that voluntarily decided to restrain funds, and some is the status of negotiations with the Southern District.

“All of those issues together contribute to creating an impediment to paying players back, an impediment which wouldn’t be there if each of those things didn’t exist,” he said.

DOJ Releases Single Full Tilt Poker Bank of Ireland Account