A couple of months ago, that Ocean 11 type robbery escapade shocked the poker world, with the robbery of the EPT in Berlin. Slowly, more and more of the culprits were caught and finally it seems that have apprehended the mastermind behind the robbery, a man who played in the tournament himself.

Mohammed Abou-C, as identified by German authorities as such because of the countries privacy laws., apparently observed where the money was kept as he took part in the poker tournament and then apparently passed the information off to his accomplices.

As brave and ridiculously confident that these guys, even going so far to having a McDonald’s meal a couple of hours before the tournament, it seems the long arm of the law did finally catch up with them. Personally; If I was involved in such a heist I’d have gotten out of Berlin, but it seems that Mr Mohammed Abou-C decieded that Berlin was the safest place to stay, which ultimately lead to his arrest.

This brings the total number of people involved in the robbery to 6.

                                                Schuett at work

Micheal Olaf Schuett, A German citizen, has been caught by the FBI for laundering over $70 million in online poker funding. The FBI claims that Schuett has been active money laundering for around a couple of years and has helped over 23,000 poker players – A majority of them being US citizens who adore poker.

The 29year old German worked as a middleman between US poker players and poker sites offshore. He would receive payment from these sites and then distribute these checks to US players when they withdrew their winnings. Quite a smart operation if I say so..

The FBI was tipped off that Schuett was sending over 50 parcels to different US cities and states every day and once these parcels were opened, multiple checks were found inside. Schuett was tattletale’d on by Federal Express. ““Federal Express employees became suspicious of Schuett’s activity when Schuett began mailing over 150 parcels per week.” The mail service employees opened several of the parcels and found that each parcel contained a check.

The FBI reported that they locked over $2 million USD in cash in several leading banks. The German is being accused of opening of up to 40 accounts at banks such as Bank America, for use in his money laundering scheme. Judges has requested that the banks holding his funs keep the accounts locked pending future investigation.

Schuett is now being held at the Lee County jail without bond. Agents are executing search warrants to seize computers and several assets that were purchased with the funds earned by his alleged illegal online gambling operations.

Its come down to this final point. If online poker was regulated and legalized, the millions of poker players currently playing and living in the United States would not need to go through the services supplied by Schuett to get their money that they rightfully earned.

In something that was seemingly straight out of Hollywood, The high-rollers games was underway at the European Poker Tour in Berlin when  masked men burst through the doors with more than poker on their mind.

The men, armed with numerous pistols, a machine gun, and strangely enough a machete burst into the poker tournament in the Hyatt Hotel just after 2pm and announced in true Hollywood crime style “This is a hold up!”

They were not bluffing either – video stream caught the action on the robbers which landed up turning the ballroom into chaos as tables were overturned, people scurried out of the way, those watching ran for the exits, and generally fled causing several injuries. In one of the videos one can see a security guard taking on of the masked robbers but he escapes by his fellow com-padre. This initial footage was caught on live television but was quickly cut off as people ran from their tables.

The men forced security staff and hotel employees to hand over a part of the tournaments jackpot money which according to police could be as high as $1.36 million.  It had been previously reported that the figure was $272,000 however as the news travels the figure has risen to the million mark. During the incident the security guards tried to fend off the attackers, and a substantial part of the money was lost in the scuffle.

Following the brazen daylight heist the robbers escaped on foot through a nearby shopping mall – not wearing black masks any longer – and finally fled in a getaway car.

According to Olaf Wagner, photographer for Germany newspaper Bild, ““When I entered, I saw a number of security people struggling with three masked men, One guy stood in the corner stuffing 500 euro notes into his backpack, while a second man pinned down a security man with his machete.”

The tournament began March 1 with 945 participants who together paid nearly €3.7 million in entry fees.