Adam Lulat is not the first poker player that loses his winnings…
There are a number of famous stories of poker players losing their big winnings overnight.
Archie “the Greek” Karas turned a $10,000 loan into $17 million within 6 months in 1992. A few years later, he lost his whole $30 million bankroll within three weeks.
According to the urban legend, at the age of 16, Johnny Chan managed to get a seat in a Las Vegas cash game. He turned $500 into $20,000 in one night. Then, he lost that $20,000 the next day and went back home to Texas empty handed.
Adam Lulat’s story is quite different
However, the story of Adam Lulat is quite different. He didn’t lose his big tournament cash by placing a few questionable bets – rather, the crown came and took it from him.
An international crime gang member must repay £70,000 years after his crime, after winning a poker tournament.https://t.co/toSyJbMLhn
— HMRC Press Office (@HMRCpressoffice) August 13, 2018
His Crimes and Conviction
Lulat was involved in a giant, £40 million money laundering scheme. A 6-man operation took place between September 2010 and November 2011 to channel that huge sum of money through multiple bank accounts into the UK from foreign countries.
To make matters worse, Lulat also took part in a different, unconnected fraud. He and his partners in crime created fictional companies across Europe to make fraudulent VAT repayment claims against foreign governments.
For these crimes, Adam Lulat was sentenced to 28 months in jail in 2015. Authorities also tried to recoup the money he made through his scams but were only able to confiscate £1 due to Lulat’s lack of assets.
The Fraudster turned Poker Champion
However, after serving his sentence, Lulat’s financial situation changed a lot thanks to poker.
In March 2018, he won the prestigious £1,000 Grosvenor UK Poker Tour Main Event in Manchester for £68,930.
But he wasn’t able to hold on to that money for long. All the attention he got for his great poker victory ended up working against him.
In August 2018 the HMRC (Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs) seized his prize money in full.
Also, if you claim to have £1 to your name, playing high stakes and publicized poker tournaments may not be the best play.
After further investigation, the HMRC recently managed to confiscate an additional £30,000 from him, putting the total amount Lulat had to pay back around £100,000.
Lulat’s Hendon page currently shows a total of 10 cashes for $112,893 combined. His biggets score by far his Governors Tour ME victory.
There is a big hiatus between January 2015 and Nivember 2016 on his “resume” for understandable reasons – he was in jail at the time.
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