Man who brought fake chips to poker tournament gets prison

[sam9ball]

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/man-brought-fake-chips-poker-144443876.html

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) -- A poker player is going to prison for bringing millions of dollars in counterfeit chips to a tournament and then breaking the plumbing when he flushed them down a toilet to hide the evidence.
A judge on Thursday sentenced Christian Lusardi to five years in prison. Lusardi also must pay $463,540 in restitution to the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa for the revenue it lost when it canceled the 2014 tournament in Atlantic City and $9,455 to Harrah's Casino Hotel for damaging its plumbing.
Lusardi, 43, of Fayetteville, North Carolina, pleaded guilty to trademark counterfeiting and criminal mischief.
Authorities said Lusardi suspected his scheme had been discovered so he flushed the fake chips down the toilet in his room at Harrah's Resort Atlantic City, where he had been staying. But the chips clogged the pipes, and guests on the floor below complained that water was dripping into their rooms.
Maintenance was called, and the chips were found. An additional 22 tournament chips worth $5,000 were found in a clogged toilet in the Borgata the next day. A total of $3.6 million worth of tournament chips were recovered, though they had no actual cash value.
The tournament was supposed to run for three weeks but was terminated after three days when the counterfeit poker chips were found. Investigators determined $800,000 in fake chips had been put into play during the first two days of the tournament.
There were 27 people remaining in the Borgata Winter Open Big Stack, No Limit Hold 'Em event when play was suspended. The $1.5 million in remaining prize money was put on hold before the state Division of Gaming Enforcement ordered the money be distributed and entry fees refunded.
Lusardi had won $6,814 in the tournament.
Investigators said he purchased the chips online from a Chinese manufacturer and then put a counterfeit Borgata logo on them. In response to the scam, the Borgata began using more intricate chips with more colors and an authentication element that can be checked under ultraviolet light.

[The Giant]

Phil Ivey should be ashamed of himself.

[daneblazer]

Throw them in the ocean, fukktard

[seaborneq]

Throw them in the ocean, fukktard

He panicked. While some a sleeping someone is up thinking of this type of scam. Yes. He deserves prison time. He may get some counterfeit *** in his butt during his stint.

[pavyracer]

Wonder how many times counterfeit chips were used before this one was uncovered. That's why I don't trust chips. Money should be used. You can't use fake money.

[SharpAngles]

When is it this pricks turn?!?!? To this day his horses are all over LA and god knows where else chip dumping, chip swiping, paying off floors and any other poker scam you could imagine! What a surprise he was playing this Borgata tourney and all suspicion directed right towards him Can't wait to see his mugshot!


Top 10 Most Hated Poker Prosposted in Editorials on 23 April 2014 by Filik

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10. Men NguyenMen “The Master” Ngyuen is one of those players who has always been able to end up in some sort of controversy or shady story.
Perhaps the earliest instance of his shadiness surfaced in 2008 when Justin Bonomo shared a story in his blog about Men’s alleged cheating at Foxwoods. As the story goes, Men was in a hotel room with players he personally staked and a fire alarm went off. Everyone was asked to leave and later a suitcase full of tournament chips was found in the room. Strangely, no Foxwoods official ever acknowledged that this incident indeed took place, but Men Ngyuen did receive a lifetime ban from Foxwoods, which, in an even more interesting twist, was overturned four years later. What really happened may never come to light, but this tale would not be only shady story Men would be involved in.

In the same blog post, Justin Bonomo presented a widely accepted theory that Men’s horses have been stealing chips off the table in smaller buy-in events and chip dumping/giving them to Ngyuen in high buy-in events.

Later on 2+2, many players posted stories of alleged cheating, chip dumping, etc. by Men and his horses. Daniel Negreanu also took to the forums to confirm that Men was indeed involved in cheating and chip dumping.

Most recently, Ngyuen’s name hit the headlines again with the Borgata Winter Poker Open fake chip scandal breaking out. On day two, a player brought a weird 5K chip to the attention of the floor. Officials immediately began investigating the situation, while players began noting that one of the players who was still in the tournament was Men Nguyen. Ngyuen did not last long though as he busted in 28th place and soon after his departure the tournament was cancelled.

Eventually the police got involved and arrested the real culprit – Christian Lusardi. At the same time, police found no evidence of Ngyuen being involved. Despite this, Men still managed to draw more heat upon himself when he went to collect his winnings. Ngyuen claimed that he bought in six times, while the records showed that he only bought in two times. Ngyuen’s story seemed even more suspicious when it turned out that the buy-in mismatch that he alleged was just enough for him to avoid filling out the W-2G tax form.

Despite everything, Men seems unfazed by any of the scandals as no solid evidence of his wrongdoing has ever come to light.

[jjgold]

Good decision

Too much money involved

[sweethook]

this and things like it have been going on im thinking

[Auto Donk]

He panicked. While some a sleeping someone is up thinking of this type of scam. Yes. He deserves prison time. He may get some counterfeit *** in his butt during his stint.

i doubt it'll be fake kahk.......

bruce jenner, after learning of this guy's plight, was seen ordering chips from china and going to a local printshop, hoping for the same fate so he can try out his new plastic hole

[jtoler]

Shady people always throw up peace signs.

[Auto Donk]

Toler, you got that right:



(image taken directly off WW's facebook and linked-in pages)

[SteelRain]

Wonder how many times counterfeit chips were used before this one was uncovered. That's why I don't trust chips. Money should be used. You can't use fake money.

They have encrypted RFID microchips embedded in the chips (the higher value chips anyways).

http://singularityhub.com/2011/02/12/1-5m-robbery-of-bellagio-casino-foiled-thanks-to-rfid-chips/

[konck]

Wonder how many times counterfeit chips were used before this one was uncovered. That's why I don't trust chips. Money should be used. You can't use fake money.

How stupid is that statement I hope you were joking

[Auto Donk]

How stupid is that statement I hope you were joking

pavy's safe, at the level games he plays.....

it's hard to counterfeit pennies and an occasional nickle...... (and not a very profitable counterfeiting endeavor, to boot)

[GunShard]

He was not much of a poker player.

http://www.wsop.com/players/playerprofile.asp?playerID=54135