Poker Pro Awaiting Sentencing for Bank Fraud Wins Tournament in Michigan

George Janssen, a Michigan poker participant who faked his personal kidnapping and is awaiting sentencing for fraud, gained a Main Collection of Poker: The Tour (MSPT) match on Wednesday.

The longtime poker professional took down the primary occasion of the collection at Firekeepers On line casino in Battle Creek, the $400 buy-in Final Stack No-Restrict Maintain’em, for $18,556. He outlasted a discipline of 312 entrants for his second MSPT title following a three-way chop with Martin Lee, the runner-up, and Albert Colaiz.

Janssen can also be a four-time World Collection of Poker Circuit (WSOP) ring winner now with over $480,000 in dwell match cashes, in accordance with The Hendon Mob. However he is two months away from discovering out how lengthy he’ll serve in jail.

Michigan Poker Champion Heading to Jail

The latest MSPT champion gained his first occasion on tour at Venetian in Las Vegas in September 2023. He took down a $1,600 buy-in No-Restrict Maintain’em occasion for a career-best $82,823 rating. Janssen beat a troublesome closing desk that included Jeremy Becker and Aaron Massey.

Janssen has continued to play poker since he pleaded responsible to financial institution fraud in August, 20 months after claiming he was kidnapped and the sufferer of a $2 million extortion scheme after having gone lacking for weeks.

The U.S. Division of Justice (DOJ) charged the poker participant on July 17 with one rely of monetary establishment fraud, a felony, alleging that he “knowingly executed a scheme or artifice to defraud and to acquire cash, funds or different property owned by or beneath the management of COPOCO Credit score Union, DORT Credit score Union, and others monetary establishments by way of materials false or fraudulent pretenses, representations, or guarantees” from June 2016 to October 2023.

Janssen defrauded a number of credit score unions by submitting thousands and thousands of {dollars} value of fraudulent auto loans. The month earlier than he went lacking, Janssen allegedly misplaced his license to promote vehicles in Michigan for 5 years for falsifying enterprise paperwork.

In November 2023, a COPOCO Credit score Union government contacted the FBI to report that Janssen had deposited a collection of checks valued round $1.4 million to his enterprise, Bay Auto Brokers, that had been returned with inadequate funds. Within the meantime, the credit score union had issued Janssen with $1.3 million in legitimate checks that had been deposited within the Bay Auto Brokers account.

Investigators say a number of buddies of Janssen approached legislation enforcement “to clear their title and specific concern they’d been defrauded by Janssen, who satisfied them to take out a number of automobile loans.”

Janssen is scheduled to be sentenced for felony fraud on Dec. 11, 2025, in the US District Court docket, Jap District of Michigan Northern Division. He may face a number of years in jail.

Janssen is the second Michigan poker participant lately to win a match whereas dealing with a prolonged jail sentence. Rudy Gavaldon, convicted of brutally beating his spouse, gained an internet World Collection of Poker (WSOP) bracelet in June 2023 whereas awaiting trial.

The MSPT Spade Poker Championship at Firekeepers incorporates a $1,500,000 assured Important Occasion beginning Oct. 9. You possibly can observe dwell updates from that match right here.