Poker Player Michael Borovetz Busted For Scamming Travellers

Poker pro Michael Borovetz, notorious for scamming airport passengers across the USA, has been arrested by police in Detroit after a tip-off…

Borovetz has a long history of conning unsuspecting travellers out of money, 13 previous convictions for fraud-related offences, mostly following the same pattern.

“Borovetz is known at airports across the country for approaching passengers with a sad story in an attempt to get money, while promising to pay it back,” according to Detroit Metropolitan Airport officials. “Once Borovetz receives the money, the victims never hear from him again.”

His modus operandi has seen dozens of complaints filed with airport authorities, but it took until this week for authorities in Michigan to pin the swindler down for those he committed there.

A tip-off that Borovetz would be connecting in Detroit en route to Miami from Seattle saw police waiting for the serial fraudster.

“We had arrest warrants in hand, and we knew he would be passing through our airport, and so we were able to take him off of a flight,” said Thomas Zahina, a deputy chief at Detroit Metro Airport. 

Borovetz now faces one year in jail for each of the two offences he has been charged with, using ‘false pretences with intent to defraud’ according to Wayne County Airport Authority spokeswoman Lisa Gass.

Poker fans are also unimpressed with Borovetz’s blagging lifestyle, Twitter lighting up with news of his arrest…

That close to $600k in lifetime tournament earnings shows Borovetz without a recorded cash in the past year, the WPT500 Legends of Poker in LA his last small win.