One week ago, Full Tilt Poker executive Ray Bitar, one of 11 individuals indicted on Black Friday on charges that included violating the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act and wire fraud, apologized for his silence following the exile of the site from the U.S. market last April and the revocation of its license in September: “I would like to offer my sincere apology to all who have been affected by these events and to clarify that my silence was not an attempt to ‘hide’ or ‘ignore’ the situation.”

This week, PokerStars pro Daniel Negreanu, in his weekly rant, reacted to Bitar’s apology by saying, “It’s a good sign that they’re actually speaking at this point, but this is the perfect statement that should have been released on May 1st, 2011. Instead, he did it 11 months later.”

You’ll recall that Bitar rationalized his quietness by saying he didn’t want to jeopardize the still-developing sale of Full Tilt Poker to Groupe Bernard Tapie. The deal, which has been in the works since late last year, has not yet been finalized and involves the U.S. Department of Justice serving as the middleman between the two companies. Bitar also said he has been hard at work trying to formulate a plan to repay players, although his terse statement did not dive into any specifics.

“Why bother saying anything now,” Negreanu asked. “I don’t get it. I don’t understand… Really? Who is your PR team? They need to be fired. You’re going to go to jail most likely and you know what? Not a tear will be shed for you, not from me anyway.”

In February, Negreanu released a videocalling Bitar (pictured), Howard Lederer, and Chris Ferguson “scumbags” and chastising the trio for their silence: “There’s not a lawyer in the world that can force you to keep as quiet as you have. It’s shameful, disgusting, and you deserve a smack in the face for what you’ve done. You have no respect for our community.” Other not-so-flattering descriptors Negreanu tossed around included “shameful little weasels” and “condescending, arrogant, incompetent morons.”

Reaction from the PocketFives community to Bitar’s apology was also less-than-supportive. One poster from Missouri wrote, “It’s just like anything else in this country. If you have money to buy the best lawyer, it buys you time to try and weasel out of the situation. If this had been one of us stealing money, we’d already be serving our sentence.”

Another member of PocketFives applauded Negreanu for calling out Lederer, Ferguson, and Bitar: “It’s been ten months and nobody has said a word. I am glad to finally see a pro at the highest level flat out say what everyone has been thinking. WP Daniel.”

Not everyone stood ardently by Negreanu, however. One member of PocketFives from Colorado pointed out that “Kid Poker” could have an ulterior motive for releasing a fiery video: “He has the whole poker world buzzing right now and I’m sure he’s going to see plenty of extra traffic to his blog from this. Just saying. I don’t think there are any heroes in all this… I’m just skeptical about anyone who suddenly makes big waves, as they usually have their own agenda for doing so.”

Now for some breaking news…

According to articles published by Gaming Intelligence and eGamingReview on Wednesday, Tapie and Full Tilt could close the deal in the next few days. Wanting to confirm the validity of each article, PocketFives reached out to Tapie lawyer Behn Dayanim, who could not confirm the assertions made in either piece. Dayanim told PocketFives, however, that negotiations are still ongoing.

eGamingReview explained that Laurent Tapie, “head of the French consortium, has already begun recruiting personnel in preparation for a re-launch, which he expects to take four weeks.” Dayanim told PocketFives that when a deal is finalized, a major public announcement would be made. PocketFives also reached out to Full Tilt lawyer Jeff Ifrah, but our e-mail was not returned at press time.