Warning: Undefined array key "post_type_share_twitter_account" in /var/www/vhosts/casinonewsblogger.com/public_html/wp-content/themes/cryptocurrency/vslmd/share/share.php on line 24
George Janssen, a Michigan poker player who claimed to be the victim of an elaborate kidnapping scheme and is awaiting sentencing for fraud, won a Major Series of Poker: The Tour (MSPT) tournament on Wednesday.
The longtime poker pro took down the first event of the series at Firekeepers Casino in Battle Creek, the $400 buy-in Ultimate Stack No-Limit Hold’em, for $18,556. He outlasted a field of 312 entrants for his second MSPT title following a three-way chop with Martin Lee, the runner-up, and Albert Colaiz.
Janssen is also a four-time World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOP) ring winner now with over $480,000 in live tournament cashes, according to The Hendon Mob. But he’s two months away from finding out how long he’ll serve in prison.
Michigan Poker Champion Heading to Prison
The newest MSPT champion won his first event on tour at Venetian in Las Vegas in September 2023. He took down a $1,600 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em event for a career-best $82,823 score. Janssen beat a tough final table that included Jeremy Becker and Aaron Massey.
Janssen has continued to play poker since he pleaded guilty to bank fraud in August, 20 months after claiming he was kidnapped and the victim of a $2 million extortion scheme after having gone missing for weeks.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) charged the poker player on July 17 with one count of financial institution fraud, a felony, alleging that he “knowingly executed a scheme or artifice to defraud and to obtain money, funds or other property owned by or under the control of COPOCO Credit Union, DORT Credit Union, and others financial institutions by means of material false or fraudulent pretenses, representations, or promises” from June 2016 to October 2023.
Janssen defrauded several credit unions by filing millions of dollars worth of fraudulent auto loans. The month before he went missing, Janssen allegedly lost his license to sell cars in Michigan for five years for falsifying business documents.
In November 2023, a COPOCO Credit Union executive contacted the FBI to report that Janssen had deposited a series of checks valued around $1.4 million to his business, Bay Auto Brokers, that were returned with insufficient funds. In the meantime, the credit union had issued Janssen with $1.3 million in valid checks that were deposited in the Bay Auto Brokers account.
Investigators say multiple friends of Janssen approached law enforcement “to clear their name and express concern they had been defrauded by Janssen, who convinced them to take out multiple vehicle loans.”
Janssen is scheduled to be sentenced for felony fraud on Dec. 11, 2025, in the United States District Court, Eastern District of Michigan Northern Division. He could face multiple years in prison.
Janssen is the second Michigan poker player in recent years to win a tournament while facing a lengthy prison sentence. Rudy Gavaldon, convicted of brutally beating his wife, won an online World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet in June 2023 while awaiting trial.
The MSPT Spade Poker Championship at Firekeepers features a $1,500,000 guaranteed Main Event starting Oct. 9. You can follow live updates from that tournament here.
