Danish Poker Player Accused of Online Fraud

Police are reportedly investigating a high-stakes Danish poker player who may have used a Trojan horse program to defraud opponents online. (Image: Adrian Dennis/AFP/Getty Images)

An unnamed Danish poker player has been accused of online fraud by Denmark’s Economic Crimes Department, which says that the player may have cheated in high-stakes games by planting a Trojan horse program on the computers of high-stakes opponents.

Other players have apparently claimed that they were defrauded out of millions in Euros by the player, who may have been using his scheme for as much as nine years or more before being caught.

Victim Reports Suspicions After Computer Troubles

According to one of the victims, who spoke to Danish news site MX.dk, he suspected that his computer has been tampered with when he found it ha been restarted while he was out of the house. That led him to check the surveillance cameras in his home, which is when he discovered that they had been turned off for 15 minutes earlier that same evening.

That led to the alleged discovery of software on his computer that allowed the suspect to see other the victims’ hole cards while they played against each other at online poker sites. Adding more layers to the story is speculation that the player in question may have gotten help from someone in the Danish police department who is known to create such Trojan horses in order to spy on the computer activities of suspects.

According to a report at iGaming.org, the name of the player is known, but has yet to be publicly released, in large part because he hasn’t been charged with any crimes to this point.

However, he is reportedly a famous Danish player who has played some of the largest online cash games and has won a European Poker Tour title. That same report also said that Danish police-commissary Torben Koldborg Frederiksen has told the press that they are investigating a 32-year-old poker player, and that the case also involves several non-Danish players.

Speculation Mounts in Online Poker Forums

Danish media have reported that a more detailed official statement may be released shortly. However, the lack of specifics in the current reports has not stopped poker players around the world from speculating on the identity of the suspect, and the connection to previous stories about fraud in high-stakes Internet poker games.

On the TwoPlusTwo forums, a thread from last year about accusations that Peter “Zupp” Jepsen and Robert “Gulkines” Flink allegedly cheated Viktor “Isildur1” Blom out of $800,000 by allowing Flink to play on Jepsen’s account was resurrected by posters.

In that case, the money was eventually returned to Blom, but some posters looked to make links between Jepsen (a 32-year-old Danish player with an EPT title) and the current case. Jepsen had written about having a friend in the IT department of local police who had looked into suspicious sites on his behalf in the past.

Still, with no official word or statements from the victims yet to emerge, any accusations at this point can only be regarded as speculation.

The fear of having software installed on their computers that would give opponents the ability to see their screens (and, thus, their cards) has been a real concern for high-stakes online poker players, and there have been instances where this has been at least attempted in the past.

Jens Kyllonen famously shared a story on TwoPlusTwo from EPT Barcelona in 2013 in which he found that his laptop had been tampered with, and that other players had dealt with stolen or potentially compromised laptops in the hotel as well.

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