---

Poker Player Booked Over Alleged $500K Bitcoin Scam

A poker player named Filippos Liakounakos was recently charged in Las Vegas for allegedly scamming a rookie cryptocurrency trader for around $500,000 in 2020. The 23-year-old Liakounakos was booked on Monday. 

According to the court records, Liakounakos has been charged with three felony charges in Las Vegas Justice Court namely, theft of more than $100,000, obtaining or using another person’s identity to cause a financial loss of more than $30,000, and an unlawful felony act involving electronic mail or transmission of computer data.

Reports suggest that according to the arrest warrant, the victim, who wishes not to be revealed, had filed a complaint in November 2020 about the bitcoin scam he fell prey to. He told the police that a business associate had approached him on the encrypted mobile app Telegram and the two had agreed on a bitcoin transaction. The victim transferred $500,000 in bitcoin, which included a $50,000 seller’s fee.

Next day, the victim contacted the business associate only to learn that the money was sent to an imposter. The warrant against Liakounakos suggests that the transaction was reviewed on a public blockchain by a detective. It was revealed that the “BTC (bitcoin) had been moved rapidly in what is commonly known as ‘peeling’ to obfuscate where the BTC was going.”

Next month, the victim was again contacted by the imposter, who suggested a bitcoin transaction of just under one million. The victim received an email from the imposter, allowing the police to issue an arrest warrant against Liakounakos.

A few months before the scam was reported, a poker forum was discussing an alleged six-figure scam by a poker player named Filippos Liakounakos. He was described as ‘the tall young Greek kid who plays PLO.’

During May 2020, Poker Fraud Alert founder Todd Witteles posted a Twitter thread titled ‘Dan Fleyshman claims that Colossus winner Cord Garcia was ripped off of $600K by Filippos Liakounakos.’

Witteles, in his tweet, mentioned, “Cord Garcia is best known for his 1st place finish in the massive-field WSOP Colossus event in 2015, for $638K. I met him in 2018 at a $1500 No-Limit Hold’em event, and he was nice and friendly. Liked the kid.”

The thread further read, “Anyway, this came out because Fleyshman decided to use the visibility of the (Bill) Perkins drama to create some of his own for Fillipos. Not sure if the claim is true, and Fleyshman has been known to stretch the truth, but my gut feeling is that this is true or mostly true.” 

Fleyshman is an entrepreneur and a poker player who has $770,281 in live tournament earnings as per Hendon Mob.

For more such daily news, keep reading GutshotMagazine.com. Follow us on our social handles Facebook, Twitter,  Instagram, and Telegram.

---

---

Comments