Feds Want $millions in Cash and Crypto from Unnamed Oregon Poker Pro

An unnamed poker pro in Oregon is facing the seizure of $millions in cash and cryptocurrency that federal prosecutors believe is the ill-gotten gains of pirated copies of movies and TV shows…

Cash, crypto and home under threat

Federal prosecutors this week asked a judge in Eugene, Oregon to seize cash and bank accounts valued at $3,926,478.11, as well as Bitcoin and Ethereum holdings until they have concluded their case.

A home worth $336,000, bought by the player in January 2017, is also among the prosecution wishlist – officials claiming it was bought as part of the money-laundering scheme.

Federal prosecutors claim that the poker player and others, also unnamed, received ‘payments from subscribers to download movies and shows in violation of copyright laws’, according to Portland’s KOIN 6 News.

No charges, no name!

However, the 28-year old Newport, Oregon man has not been named by news sources ‘because he has not been charged with a crime’ – a factor that his lawyers claim violates his 4th and 5th Amendment rights.

"We don't generally comment on a current case, but as a matter of principle the government should not grab a person's assets and strip them of their resources unless and until proven guilty," said Rain Minns, the poker pro’s Texan lawyer.

Las Vegas poker pro?

Minns explained that her client is a professional poker player, well-known in Las Vegas poker tournaments as seen on his FB page and numerous gambling websites.

IRS Special Agent Keith Druffel, however, is claiming that the player “was found to have no verifiable legitimate income sources" despite having had $6.3 million deposited into a Stripes account.

PayPal tipoff

It is alleged that the pro sold his pirated content on websites such as noobroom.com, nobroom7.com, Superchillin.com, Movietv.to and Sit2play.com – the authorities, initially Homeland Security, being tipped off about suspicious financial activity by PayPal.

Druffel claims that the pro was making an average of $500,000 per month last year, while 2017 brought him in over $2.2 million. The 2016 figure was over $1 million in revenue, and in 2014 and 2015 he is alleged to have “received on average about $400,000 a year in revenue”.