Alleged Poker Scam Artist Living it up in Costa Rica
With the Absolute Poker and UltimateBet cheating scandals still fresh on everyone’s minds, it isn’t surprising that the people allegedly involved have attracted media attention whenever they turn up. “AJ Green” also known as Allan Grimard is the subject of much speculation of the “hole card” fiasco which many players are still seeking closure on. Many people belive it was Grimard that played under the infamous POTRIPPER account.
It has been reported that this week by Gambling911.com that Grimard is living it up in Costa Rica, home to several online gambling companies. He is reported to be building a large home in Los Suenos, an upscale resort in the area, driving an expensive new SUV and sailing a yacht.
Grimard, once a low level supervisor at an online gambling company, has mysteriously amassed enough wealth to partake in these ventures but how he has done that is anyone’s guess. It should be mentioned that despite in-depth investigations by Gaming Associates and the Kahnawake Gaming Commission, Absolute Poker has not publicly named Grimard as being involved in the scandal.
It has been alleged that the Canadian-born Grimard is a close college friend of the widely regarded founder of Absolute Poker, Scott Tom whose name has also surfaced in reports. It has also been reported that there is a sealed US indictment being held for Tom’s father who is said to be an Absolute Poker investor. What charges are involved is still unknown and surprisingly has not attracted much public attention or coverage despite the multi-million dollar makeup of the Absolute Poker hole card cheating scandal.
Insiders have claimed that none of Absolute Poker’s investors or management are to travel to the United States fearing further indictments despite the fact that Scott Tom is no longer involved with the company. AP is now owned by former Kahnawake chief Joe Norton’s Tokwiro Enterprises group. It was recently announced that Absolute Poker and UltimateBet is planning a merger into a new super-network titled Cereus.
In more positive news developments, the Kahnawake Gaming Commission, who licenses both Absolute Poker and UltimateBet, has hired Frank Catania, former New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement director and respected online gambling regulatory consultant, to lead the team probing the cheating scandals at both sites.
To date Tokwiro has paid a rather minuscule fine in the amount of $500,000 to the KGC in regards to the Absolute Poker scandal but doubt still lingers due to the lack of public exposure or prosecution of the fraud perpetrators. The initial denial of both sites when players complained of cheating further complicates the issue. Tokwiro finally took action after the allegations were proved conclusively by an expert player investigation at a major online poker forum.
absolute poker AJ Green Allan Grimmard Kahnawake Online Poker poker Potripper Ultimate Bet
Mitch said
am September 2 2008 @ 9:57 pm
Hey, I just linked to this article from my site.
If you have time, come join my AB/UB boycott.
mob_godson said
am January 26 2010 @ 2:47 pm
The figure they speak of is incorrect,it was 22.0 million dollars,the thief was the ex owner of absolute poker who sold the company and left with the secret data base to enter games legit,and be able to see all other card players hands.The eventual bust came from 5 pro players becoming suspicious of this so called user name,now the truth of the matter is ive studied the situation over 5 years and contacted Absolute over twenty times from 4 years ago until just last month,as i knew exactly what was going on,theres no way a man with three aces and two queens was going to fold unless he knew i had 4 kings and this was a repetitive process.I told them id never use real money because the site was unsafe.,now a few sites are on facebook and the communication of other opponents hands are being revealed.I lost over 1.7 million dollars in play chips in two years and the hands were noticed because the winning hands werent winning at all,thats when the crooks started slipping up,they tested the robbery for months with play chips to get the more than one bandit in a game at a time.The number one thing to remember when playing online is the security provided as far as log ins and duplicate user names is made by the site placing a cookie on youre browser,you can trick it by by playing without the download,BUT the way one is caught is with the ip address,so what the common crook does is gets two or more laptops,two or more internet lines to different numbers and then they can go into the game and be identified as single players,the problem could be simply denied by the site forbidding to play more than one hand at a time,this is exactly what made the pros suspicious ,the bandit was tied into over 5 games at the same time,and never lost.The other thing that is bad on the sites is when youre in a tourney and youre down to the last person,and they continually fold for over an hour on everyhand,this is another form of theft,what they are doing whether its for cash or not is making you gain bad feelings towards the game and the player and then you drop out,they win,the playchips go to them they do a buy back and they go off to make a real purchase swapoping the chips for prizes.Im sure the site feels bad,i dont because they were forewarned,and besides ,the most important factor is this,there are a few legal sites in the us,pureplay being one of them,based in the us,as to where absolute is owned and operated out of Canada by a native american tribe,but their customer service is in costa rica.Illegal.There is no legislation regarding any of the theft as a criminal act,the man walked with over 20 mil and there is no law and the US government does not regulate online gambling.Too bad,because they are losing over 110 billion dollarsa year in tax money.