In breaking news, according to CNN, the Wall Street Journal, and confirmed by PocketFives, Groupe Bernard Tapie has finalized an agreement to purchase the assets of Full Tilt Poker for $80 million. The U.S. Department of Justice reportedly brokered the deal and, according to CNN, “As part of the deal, Full Tilt Poker had to agree to forfeit its assets to the U.S. Government, which then sold the assets to the GBT.” Effectively, the DOJ served as the middleman in the transaction, although when and how players can expect to receive their frozen funds back remain to be seen.

PocketFives can independently confirm, through two sources, the validity of the CNN story, which was posted around 3:00pm ET on Thursday. When asked when players could expect to receive their funds, one source responded, “No clue.”

Poker Players Alliance Executive Director John Pappas told PocketFives shortly after the news broke, “We certainly hope that any deal will ensure that U.S. players and global players are paid in full.”

According to the DOJ, Full Tilt was a “global Ponzi scheme” that owed as much as $390 million to players worldwide, while at the same time, the company paid out $440 million to its pros and executives. As reported by Subject: Poker, PocketFives, and other sites, Groupe Bernard Tapie will be charged with paying back players from outside of the United States, while the DOJ will handle U.S. payouts. Presumably, Full Tilt will reopen to non-U.S. players.

CNN added, “The Government plans to dismiss the civil forfeiture proceedings [against Full Tilt]. This will have no impact on individual proceedings, but it removes a potential liability for shareholders, as it removes all pending proceeding against Full Tilt.” Full Tilt shareholders have to approve the asset forfeiture and the sale to Tapie, a firm that has a history of turning around fledgling firms. Its prized case study is the sports giant Adidas.

Reacting to the news in a thread in the Poker Sites forumwere several members of the community, including PocketFives Elite player wackyJaxon, who commented, “Awesome news! I hope nothing goes wrong and we all get our money back and the software is up and running under the new owners soon again!”

CNN had included text about an embargo of the story pending reaction from a lawyer for Groupe Bernard Tapie, but the report had already found its way to Yahoo News.

PocketFives reached out to Tapie legal counsel Behnam Dayanim, who told us in an exclusive interview, “We have a letter agreement with the Department of Justice that would allow GBT to purchase the Full Tilt assets from the United States. This is the first step in a process that will require agreement of the Full Tilt companies to the forfeiture of those assets and execution of a definitive agreement with the Department.”

Over on TwoPlusTwo, the news was also being discussed. One poster wrote, “If my FTP money hits my bank account in under six months, I’d be happy. Also, what do you think will happen with players that didn’t take screen shots of their balances? I hope to god FTP still has all that stuff and will make it available to players filing a claim with the DOJ.”

Around 4:20pm ET, reports surfaced that the CNN article was taken down, but PocketFives was able to access it upon the adjournment of a Senate Committee on Indian Affairs hearing on internet gambling at 4:30pm ET. At 7:00pm ET, the CNN article was no longer accessible, but the Wall Street Journal had picked it up instead.

Full Tilt has been inaccessible to United States poker players since Black Friday, when the DOJ seized its dot-com domain name and drove it from the U.S. market. In fact, the website still is emblazoned with a DOJ logo. The Alderney Gambling Control Commission suspended Full Tilt’s license in June before ultimately revoking it in September. At the beginning of November, Groupe Bernard Tapie Managing Director Laurent Tapie asserted that a deal would be struck within two weeks, a time frame that eventually held true.

The DOJ distributing player funds to U.S. Full Tilt customers could lead to several tax consequences for players. You can read more in an exclusive PocketFives interview.

Stay tuned to PocketFives for more on this breaking story.