Poker news tagged with 'scam'

A professional poker player with a past history of fraud convictions at USA airports that spanned 13 states is facing charges once again after he was arrested on Saturday at the Detroit Metropolitan Airport.

Police said Michael Borovetz, age 44, had a pretty believable ‘sob story'. His modus operandi was to approach travelers and get them to believe his "sad story in an attempt to get money, while promising to pay it back", according to a news report released Tuesday from the Wayne County Airport Authority.

As soon as he received the money, the poor victims will never see nor hear from him again.

Read more » Poker Pro Michael Borovetz arrested again at Detroit Airport for Scamming Travelers

A few days ago, poker pro Henry Michael Borovetz has been arrested by police after they received reports from travelers being scammed by him at the Newark Airport. The scam involved Borovetz ‘borrowing’ money from unsuspecting travelers to pay for a hotel room after he claimed that his flight had been cancelled.

Michael Borovetz, age 43, who has won a WSOPC Gold Ring and has nearly $600,000 in live tourney winnings, is now getting a bad public image, yet again, over his airport scams. He apparently has a criminal record dating back to the early 2000s for a variety of misdemeanors.

Borovetz’s latest victim was a 55-year-old New Jersey man who had believed Borovetz’s tale of woe on April 3 Tuesday, and helped the con-man by handing over $200 after being approached by him at the baggage claim.Read more » Airport Scam leads to arrest of Poker pro Michael Borovetz

Ex-Vice President of Mohegan Sun Pocono casino Robert Pelligrini shall spend 32 months (or 2 years 8 months) in federal prison after admitting that he had a role in a money-laundering scam that cost the casino over $420,000.

Senior U.S. District Judge A. Richard Caputo carried out the sentence on a hearing last Friday, at the Max Rosenn Federal Courthouse located in Wilkes-Barre.

Judge Caputo deviated from the suggested sentence guidelines, which was 46-57 months after he heard the pleas from Pelligrini’s lawyer William Ruzzo as well as Pelligrini’s family members. Ruzzo said that his 51-year-old client is deeply remorseful for what he had done and takes full responsibility for it.

Read more » Ex-VP of Mohegan Sun sentenced to 32 months in prison for slots scam

Six people have been indicted for stealing almost $10,000 while playing video poker at Kewardin Casino Hotel & Resort in Michigan, USA. According to local newspapers, Joseph Michael Koster used a "light wand" device to increase payouts from the video poker machines while his companions (Michael Leo Patterson, Cheryl Rose Steinsiek, Vannessa Dale Robb, Bruce Kirby Robb and Jeffrey Paul Neighbors) watched out for casino security and patrons. The scam went on for almost two years from July 2009 to June 2011.

"By using this device, defendant Koster tricked the video poker machine into paying out winnings well in excess of those to which Koster was entitled," Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Lochner wrote in an indictment.

50-year-old poker pro Masaaki Kagawa of Tokyo, president of an IT company named Koei Planning and poker pro with over $1.5 million in tournament winnings, has been arrested and charged with running Android malware ring together with another 8 individuals.

Read more » Japanse Poker Pro Arrested Over Android-Malware Scam

Canadian poker pro Matthew Marafioti's name has been dragged through the mud in the past weeks. It all started last month when he and his ex-girlfriend Lauren Kling broke up and he called her names via his Twitter and Facebook.

Last week, things got really bad when an anonymous person posted Skype and Facebook conversations between Marafioti and Swedish hacker and poker player Samer Rahman in which the two talked about hacking the computer of Canadian poker player Will "molswi47" Molson so that Marafioti could see his cards.

Read more » Poker Players Show Their Anger Towards The Alleged High-Stakes Scam

It seems like a new high-stakes poker scam has been revealed. It all started last week when an anonymous person posted very shady Skype and Facebook conversations between Canadian poker pro Matt Marafioti (the guy who wrote not-so-nice-things about Lauren Kling after the break-up last month) and Swedish poker player and IT expert Samer Rahman, who was accused in 2007 of helping fellow countryman Mohamed Kowssarie to steal millions of dollars from Patrik Antonius and Johnny Lodden in a hacking scheme.

Read more » Alleged High-Stakes Poker Scam

Early this morning the police made a raid against Casino Cosmopol in Gothenburg, Sweden. The raid resulted in that 8 persons were arrested, of which 7 worked at the casino. According to the police, these 8 persons (2 men and 6 women) have cheated the casino of hundreds of thousands (Swedish crowns) since the summer this year.

The fraud has taken place at the casino's game tables and thanks to security cameras and security staff the police have plenty of proof. The arrested persons will be heard by the police during the day and it's probably just a matter of time before the police can give further information on the matter.

Yet another cheating scandal is about to emerge in the online poker world. This time it's two high stakes players that have fallen victim to a scam. Both players have had trojan horses installed on their computers by a German poker player who has won about $400,000 from them. The victims come from Switzerland and Austria and the German cheater is now located in England. One of the victims is rumored to be EPT Tallinn winner Ronny Kaiser.

Read more » Another cheating scandal brought into daylight

Once again the Portoguese poker prodigy José Maria Macedo, better known as Girah, has been caught cheating. This time he has told people to play poker against "sauron1989" on Ipoker's highest stakes and claimed that he's extremely bad and that he will give anyone who play him strategic advice. Anyhow, it didn't take long before people found out that it was in fact José Macedo who used that account and therefore had a huge advantage against the players he "helped".

Macedo has written an official apologize in one of the biggest poker forums online. He has also promised to pay back everything he has won with a great interest rate. However, according to the forum thread, it doesn't seam like Macedo had any regret whatsoever until he was caught cheating.