Filippos Liakounakos, a 23-year-old poker player, is reported to have taken part in a $500K bitcoin scam in 2020. He currently faces three felony charges after getting booked in Las Vegas Justice Court on Monday.
Liakounakos is said to have stolen over $100,000, obtained or used someone else's identity to make a financial loss of over $30,000. Court records also state that he committed a felony act of transmitting computer data or electronic mail.
The Player's Crime
Last Tuesday, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that the scam victim alerted the authorities in November 2020 that he lost money in a fake bitcoin deal. His name was hidden in Liakounakos's arrest warrant.
The victim informed the police that a business associate approached him on an encrypted mobile chat application, Telegram, and he agreed to make a bitcoin transaction. He said that he made a $500,000 bitcoin transfer that included the seller's $50,000 fee.
The victim called the associate the following day and learned that they didn't know he made the transaction. Instead, they claimed that the victim sent the money to an imposter. This is according to a publication that the Las Vegas Review-Journal made.
A detective said in Liakounako's arrest warrant that he checked the transaction on a public blockchain and "saw the bitcoin (BTC) moving fast in what is often called 'peeling' to blur where the bitcoin was being sent to."
The imposter contacted the victim again the following month and suggested a bitcoin transaction of slightly less than $1,000,000. The victim retrieved the imposter's email, which enabled the police to issue Liakounakos' arrest warrant.
The Poker Community Makes Some Accusations
A certain poker forum discussed another alleged six-figure fraud that Filippos Liakounakos was reported to have committed several months before the victim spoke out about the bitcoin scam. The player was labeled as "the tall young Greek kid who plays PLO."
Todd Witteles, Poker Fraud Alert founder, posted a thread in May 2020 labeled "Dan Fleyshman states that Filippos Liakounakos ripped off Cord Garcia, a Colossus winner, of $600K." He stated that Cord Garcia is popular for winning $638,000 in a 2015 large-field World Series of Poker (WSOP) Colossus event.
Witteles met Garcia at a $1,500 ML event in 2018, and his friendliness made him like him. He wrote this in a thread that comprises an embedded tweet which was deleted later.
The founder added that this became known after Fleyshman opted to use the Perkins (Bill) drama's visibility to start one for Liakounakos. It is uncertain whether the accusation is true as Fleyshman stretches the truth sometimes. But his conscience tells him that it is mostly true.
Fleyshman is a successful poker player and entrepreneur with $770,281 live poker tournament earnings.
Liakounakos Faces Other Accusations
journeyman outlined other accusations against Liakounakos on Two Plus Two in a June 2019 thread. He accused the poker player of owing Kings Club, a private club site, $12,500 and failing to pay. Instead, he claimed that the club cheated him, thus making him refuse to pay it.
