On Monday, the Copenhagen City Council has seized DKK 26 million from a professional poker player and passed the verdict that he will be sentenced to 2 years and 6 months behind bars.
The criminal case hearing was first conducted in May and it was regarding the man's activities negatively affecting other poker players from 2008 until 2014. The defendant is convicted mainly for charges of hacking and fraud.
The illegal profits that were confiscated from him are approximately DKK 26,376,929 (approx. $3.9 million).
Initially, the court stated that the appropriate penalty for this sort of crime is imprisonment for three years, but according to prosecutor Lisette Jørgensen, some six months have been removed from the sentence because the case has been long overdue.
The defendant, whose name remains hidden from public, has appealed to the Eastern Lands Court where he demands to be acquitted.
In an earlier hearing, it came to light that it was actually his old friend who contacted police and told them about the unusual incident. Three witnesses (two women and one man), who play online poker, have told the court that the defendant admitted to them that he has installed a spyware on their computers.
The male witness said the fraudster confessed to him as they were strolling around one of the lakes in Copenhagen, "He says he installed the program to see my cards."
The now-convicted individual remains steadfast and has pleaded not guilty to the accusations. When asked about his career, he said he first had a taste for betting, playing through card games in the mid-2000s. Eventually he became so adept and immersed at the game that he was able to make a living from it. "In the beginning, before I had a girlfriend, I probably played for periods of 16 hours a day. That was the first thing I did in the morning. Then you went back and forth between the computer and the toaster."
The verdict says aside from the DKK 26 million, he has to pay additionally almost $800,000 to a person (most likely it's one of his victims).
Watch the video here and see how a Danish player cheated other pros in online poker (note that the video is in Danish):
Source: https://ekstrabladet.dk/sport/anden_sport/dansk-pokerspiller-skal-i-faengsel/7897908
