Dennis Blieden
The Division of Justice revealed on Friday that professional poker player Dennis Blieden had actually begged guilty to one matter of cord scams and one matter of exacerbated identification theft pertaining to the embezzlement of $22 million from social networks firm StyleHaul.
In a declaration, the United States Attorney’s Workplace for the Central Area of The golden state stated that Blieden was scheduled for a sentencing hearing on March 20, where he could confront 22 years in federal jail.
StyleHaul Funds Wired to Personal Accounts
- Dennis Blieden Accused of Embezzlement of $22m at Former Employer July 12, 2019 Ryan Knuppel Online Poker News 0 March of 2018 was pretty exciting for Dennis Blieden as he was relatively unknown.
- As former vice president of accounting and finance at Los Angeles-based StyleHaul, Dennis Blieden had control over the company's bank accounts.
According to the appeal arrangement, Blieden worked as the controller and vice head of state of accounting and also financing for StyleHaul from October 2015 to March 2019. Throughout that time, Blieden wired money to his individual bank account, camouflaging those purchases by making up them as repayments to StyleHaul’s clients, to name a few deceptive practices.
Dennis Blieden, 29, formerly of Santa Monica and now residing in Nevada, was taken into federal custody yesterday in Las Vegas. The indictment, which a federal grand jury returned on Tuesday and was unsealed today, charges him with 11 counts of wire fraud, one count of aggravated identity theft, and two forfeiture counts.
The statement additionally claimed that Blieden “regularly” gambled online using cryptocurrency he had actually purchased using money he embezzled from StyleHaul.
Blieden made use of cash he stole from his employer to create $1,204,000 in personal checks to poker gamers, $1,134,956 was made use of to settle his bank card, as well as $8,473,734 was moved to Blieden’s cryptocurrency accounts, according to court papers,” the declaration checked out.
According to his page in the Hendon Crowd data source, Blieden has won $1,060,394 in his real-time event online poker profession. The huge majority of that came at the 2018 WPT LA Poker Standard, where he removed the top prize of $1 million by outliving a field of 493 gamers. It’s unclear whether cash drawn from StyleHaul was made use of to buy into the $10,000 event.
WPT Title Launched Blieden to Texas Hold’em Stardom
Prior to that occasion, Blieden was a little-known neighborhood player. That made his triumph at a final table that included a number of specialist players an unusual trouble, though commentators and also viewers agreed that Blieden had shown lots of ability in gaining his initial major title. Blieden defeated Toby Lewis in heads-up play to earn the win as well as an entry right into the season-ending WPT Event of Champions.
While Blieden had few other significant outcomes, his occupation record includes three money at the World Series of Poker, consisting of a 182nd location surface in a $1,500 occasion throughout the 2019 collection. He likewise ended up in 17th location in the Partypoker Millions Las vega competition at the Aria this July, winning $35,000.
Not long after those results, Blieden was fingered and also taken right into government protection in July.
StyleHaul was an electronic media marketing firm that was headquartered in Hollywood. In March, the business revealed that it was preparing to move to London after shutting down its US procedures. In Might, the company finished its procedures entirely. StyleHaul dealt with social media influencers, including Joey Craceffa, Zoella, and Cameron Dallas.
Before his charge, Blieden had actually been the subject of an internal examination at StyleHaul after the business understood there were irregularities in its accountancy. According to an interior memorandum acquired by the Daily Beast, Blieden confessed to internal investigators that he had actually embezzled $15 million throughout 2017.
Source: cardschat.com
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Back in March of 2018, an unknown in the poker world named Dennis Bliedenrose to the top of a tough field of 493 entries to take down the $10,000 buy-in World Poker Tour L.A. Poker Classic Main Event for a $1 million payday. Now 16 months later, he's back on the news wire but this time, it's not in a positive light.
On Thursday, July 11, Blieden was indicted by a federal grand jury for embezzling $22 million from his former employer StyleHaul, where he had served as controller and vice president of accounting and finance. In that role, it is alleged that Blieden funneled money from company accounts for his private use, which included poker buy-ins and other forms of gambling, between October 2015 and March 2019.
'If convicted of all charges, Blieden would face a statutory maximum sentence of more than 200 years in federal prison.'
The indictment, returned by a federal grand jury on Tuesday and unsealed on Thursday, contained charges of 11 counts of wire fraud, one count of aggravated identity theft, and two forfeiture counts against Blieden. The press release posted by the Department of Justice's U.S. Attorney's Office of the Central District of California reported that Blieden made his first court appearance today, Thursday, in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas, and is to be arraigned on the indictment at a later date in Los Angeles.
The case was investigated by the FBI and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Valerie L. Makarewicz of the Major Frauds Section.
Charges Against Blieden
Originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, Blieden told PokerNews during the 2018 WPT Tournament of Champions (TOC) that he moved out to Southern California with some friends after finishing college in Ohio. He then resided in Santa Monica, California for some years while he worked for the aforementioned StyleHaul, a digital marketing company that connects brands with social media personalities. According to the DOJ, Blieden was residing in Nevada when he was arrested and taken into federal custody in Las Vegas on July 10.
In addition to using company funds to enter poker tournaments, the DOJ press release stated that Blieden 'frequently engaged in online gambling with crypto-currency he purchased with embezzled money, according to the government’s motion requesting detention in this case.' The report further elaborated that according to court documents, Blieden allegedly wrote $1,204,000 in 'personal checks to poker players,' used $1,134,956 to pay credit cards, and transferred $8,473,734 to crypto-currency accounts.
It is alleged that Blieden funneled money from company accounts for his private use, which included poker buy-ins and other forms of gambling.
According to the report, Blieden is charged with disguising his fraudulent behavior by methods including creating a fictitious lease for rental of a condominium in Rosarito Beach, Mexico back in May 2018 that contained a StyleHaul executive's forged signature. The indictment alleges that Blieden falsely represented expenses of $230,000 for renting said condo for company clients and employees, funds which were unlawfully transferred for personal use. Other alleged fraudulent activities were the creation of fabricated wire transfer letters that imitated payments to clients.
Though not yet convicted, the outlook for Blieden is grim, as the release states: 'If convicted of all charges, Blieden would face a statutory maximum sentence of more than 200 years in federal prison.'
A Brief but Exhilarating Poker Career
Blieden was fairly new to the poker tournament scene when he mowed down a talented final table and beat Toby Lewis heads up to add his name to the WPT Champions Cup at the LAPC more than a year ago. Leading up to that million-dollar score, Blieden had just two cashes on his poker Hendon Mob profile with a career-high score of $21,148 for a 13th-place finish in a 2017 $5,000 WSOP event.
Since his big victory, Blieden popped up sporadically at some of the bigger stops, playing in the 2018 WPT season-ending $15,000 TOC which he qualified for with his win, also firing the $300,000 Aria Super High Roller Bowl in the same trip. He failed to cash in either of those and had the same result in the two US Poker Open events he played — a $50,000 and a $100,000 event — back in late February, before he was dismissed from his position at StyleHaul.
“I figure out my game plan by the moment. I don’t really ever have a game plan going into tournaments.'
In fact, the only two tournament results he's logged since claiming the LAPC title both came last month. Blieden finished in 182nd place in a WSOP $1,500 Bounty event for a modest $1,603 and he took 17th in the $10,300 partypoker MILLIONS Vegas at Aria which earned him a payout of $35,000.
Dennis Blieden Sentence
In his WPT win and in the TOC where he finished Day 1 as chip leader and eventually busted out on the money bubble, Blieden played a characteristically aggressive style, which we highlighted in a feature right here at PokerNews. At the LAPC final table, Blieden even went as far as raising his button without looking at his cards and his fearless play paid off.
During his run in the 2018 TOC, he told PokerNews, “I figure out my game plan by the moment. I don’t really ever have a game plan going into tournaments.' He explained on Day 1 that this very style was working for him even in an event packed with former WPT champions: “When someone with my style catches a few hands too, it’s really hard to beat me, because you can’t put me on a hand. You always want to think I’m bluffing, so when I actually have it, it puts them in a really weird spot.”
As is often the case, a super aggressive style in poker works well and oftentimes ends with the player coming out on top with all the chips, or hitting the rail in a boom-or-bust fashion. Unfortunately for Blieden, his most recent bluff may have been his last.
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Dennis Blieden