Swedish Poker Pros Held at Gunpoint in Casino Cosmopol: Others Extorted, Murdered

A number of Sweden’s most prominent poker pros have become victims of extortion plots, armed robbery and even murder. 

Last week, Gambling911.com reported on how one gambler with ties to a Swedish motorcycle gang, the Bandidos, allegedly tried hacking into other poker players accounts. 

A Facebook conversation reportedly between that individual, Samer Rahman, and Matt Marafioti was cut and paste upon the posting forum TwoPlusTwo.com and has caused mass outrage within the poker community. 

From the PokerGuruBlog.com: 

(P)ieces of information began to surface about Rahman. 2p2 member ‘Mr. Hickey’, citing a “reliable source,” stated that Rahman had been known to have hacked high stakes players’ computers and he owned the ‘Alladin’ account on FTP. Rahman has also been proven to be in connection with Mohammed Kowssarie, a Swedish high stakes player under the screen names ‘TerrorofSweden’ and ‘Fast_Freddy’, who has cheated in high stakes games, against Patrik Antonius and Johnny Lodden, for instance. Both Rahman and Kowssarie has ties to the Swedish motorcycle crime gang Bandidos, who have been known for cheating money out of several Scandinavian high stakes pros.

Players are, however, afraid to publish hard evidence, fearing retaliation. Previously, there had been a post concerning the scams of the gang but it got removed within minutes; it is also a well known fact that the owner of an international poker site was murdered by the Swedish Hell’s Angels gang before giving a testimony against a former business partner.

In the 2p2 thread on the current issue, Rahman came along and denied all charges. He claimed he had only met Marafioti once but they have no connection above that. Next, he requested the removal of the topic on the “scam” and the 2p2 administration closed it to begin reviewing its content. Three hours later, the topic was reopened, as many of the charges appeared to be true.

Poker Player Forced to Surrender 224,000 to Gun Toting Assailant

A 23-year-old poker player was recently placed in custody after allegedly holding up another player at the Casino Cosmopol in Gothenburg in June.  He is facing charges of robbery and several cases of extortion.  The victim was forced to surrender 224,000 crowns.  The suspect finally surrendered to police this past week after remaining on the lam. 

There is much evidence against him, says a source familiar with the case. 

The prosecutor is charging the individual with four counts of extortion that transpired between June and December 2011 along with a robbery that also took place in December. Aggravated robbery or aggravated extortion charges are also filed in connection with the June 2012 matter.

The victim claims that the 23-year-old knew where he lived and threatened that, if he got the idea to go to the police, ‘things would go bad’.

‘Now I know where you live,’ the 23-year-old reportedly said.

The suspect denies the crime, but has hinted that he felt cheated by the other player and some apparent accomplices, saying he and the other man maintained a joint account at PokerStars.com that was not properly split for profits.  The 23-year-old unidentified suspect also claims that the victim allowed others to access the joint account at PokerStars, leaving it empty. 

The suspect is accused of victimizing at least eight other poker players, robbing them of several hundred thousand each. 

The investigation is ongoing. 
 

Contract Killing
 

In 2009, the founder of PokerListings.com was murdered in his Sweden home.  The unsolved killing of Andreas Oscarsson, who had previously sold the popular poker portal, was rumored to have connections to organized crime. 

Oscarsson, a poker player himself, was shot to death in his family’s home as his two-year-old son slept nearby. 

The man moved to the United States from Trollhättan ten years prior but was on holiday in Sweden at the time of his death.

Oscarsson’s murder was also revealed to have involved an apparent $2 million extortion attempt.

Scroll Down For More...

The murder of Andreas Oscarsson remains unsolved to this day
 

A 44 year-old man linked to the Bandidos motorcycle gang was later accused of "aggravated extortion" in connection to the murder.

According to Poker.se, “Oscarsson was one of those people who was scheduled to testify in a trial in Stockholm a few weeks (of the murder).”

According to SpelaCasino.se, “It is also alleged that Oscar’s economic adviser was attacked, shot and wounded in the leg, a crime for which two men subsequently were arrested. The accused man also threatened Adviser via both telephone and SMS, many times.”

No arrests were made in what Swedish police deemed to be a “contract killing”.

- Alejandro Botticelli, Gambling911.com