Scott Crespo is the plaintiff in a lawsuit filed October 12, 2010 in the Illinois Northern District Court in Chicago. The defendants include Illinois Online Poker Players Andy Seth (BKice), Faraz Jaka (the-toilet 0), Benjamin LeFew (chong94), Moshin Charania (chicagocards1), Ravi Raghavan (govshark2) and Tyler Reiman (puffinmypurp). Scott Crespo brings the complaint against the defendants as “members of the illegal gambling organization and place known as Pokerhaus.”
Crespo is seeking to recover third party illegal poker gambling losses won by the defendants. Crespo is a citizen of the state of Florida and the defendants are citizens and/or residents of Illinois. The court has diversity jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C 1332(a) because the parties are citizens of different states and the matter in controversy exceeds $75,000. The Venue is proper in this district under 28 U.S.C 1332(a) (1) and (2) because defendants reside and/or can be found within this judicial district, including Seth who has stated that he is “pokerhaus”
Andy Seth plays on Pokerstars, Full Tilt, Bodog, Absolute Poker & Ultimate Bet as “BKiCe”.
Moshin Charania plays at Pokerstars as “sms9231″ Full Tilt as “chicagocards1″, Bodog Poker as “aintifyne69″, Ultimate Bet as “chicagocards1″ & Absolute Poker as “CHICAGOCARDS1″.
Faraz Jaka plays on Pokerstars as “The-Toilet 0″, Full Tilt as “The-Toilet 0″, Bodog Poker as “The_Toilet”, Ultimate Bet as “The-Toilet” & Absolute Poker as THE-TOILET & The_Toilet.
Benjamin Lefew plays on Pokerstars as “Chong94″ & Full Tilt as “Chong94″.
Ravi Raghavan plays on Pokerstars as “govshark2″, Full Tilt as “govshark2″, Bodog Poker as “govshark2″, Ultimate Bet as “govshark2″ & “SCHWAG2PURP” & on Absolute Poker as “SCHWAG2PURP”.
Tyler Reiman plays on Pokerstars as “puffinmypurp”, Full Tilt as “GimmeDa 1 time”, Bodog Poker as “dabears87″, Ultimate Bet as “keefking420″, Absolute Poker as IPUFFPURP” & KEEFKING420. Andy is a “well known” and “featured” member on Ultimate bet according to filed lawsuit.
There are 3 counts that were filed:
Count 1: Violation of the Illinois Loss Act.
Some of the items listed under this include:
“…Defendants repeatedly played on-line poker for money or other thing of value from the fall of 2006 to the present.”
“Online poker involves making a wager upon the result of the game of poker by means of the internet.”
“Online poker is not exempted by 720 ILCS 5/28-1(b).”
“The Defendants, as members and operators of the Pokerhaus organization, are individually and jointly liable for their illegal poker winnings.”
Count 2: The Illegal Keeping of a Gambling Place
Some of the items listed under this include:
“…Defendants knowingly used real estate or property for the purpose of gambling.”
“The Pokerhaus, located at 1103 South Busey Avenue, Urbana Champaign, Illinois 61801 is an illegal gambling place.”
“…as occupants and operators of the Pokerhaus, hosted gatherings to gamble by playing live and online poker.”
“…members committed acts of collusion and cheating while playing online poker.”
“The Defendants have actively recruited other individuals to participate in illegal gambling activity.”
Count 3: Defendants are Joint Liability for Illegal Gambling Winnings
“Defendants are individually and jointly liable for any judgment that may be recovered by Plaintiff as a result of illegal gambling winnings.”
“…Defendants intended to promote and facilitate these commissions, and solicited, aided, abetted, agreed, and attempted to aid the other Defendants in the planning and commission of these illegal gambling actions.”
“…engaged in a common criminal design or agreement to commit acts of illegal gambling.”
“…collude with one another in online poker to cheat their opponents for money.”
This is going to be very interesting. Stay posted to MakePokerLegal.com & The Scott Matusow Show for the latest regarding this case.
You can view the 204 page document here
