Patrik Antonius and Sofia Lövgren send out a scammer warning
Patrik Antonius and Sofia Lövgren both took to social media yesterday to warn poker players about a dangerous serial scammer – named as Samuel Grassi – who has recently been released from prison…
Antonius’ initial Instagram story, now reduced to a single warning photo collage, related how Italian scammer Grassi has used photos taken with the Finnish poker legend to persuade others in the poker community to part with huge sums of money.
Samuel Grassi just came out of prison and has sexually assaulted women before
It also claims that he has used threats of violence against poker players and others to keep them quiet about his illegal activities, Grassi having been jailed in the past for his scams and other crimes.
Antonius also alleged that he knew of at least two women who had been sexually assaulted by Grassi – this the most likely reason for his Instagram story being edited down.
Sofia Lövgren takes to Social Media
Swedish pro Sofia Lövgren followed up Antonius’ account of the serial scammer’s methods with her own story about Grassi.
This is a WARNING! Please watch the video on @Patrik_Antonius insta-story. https://t.co/f0NPB1fxCO
Watch out for scammer Samuel Grassi!! ⚠️ pic.twitter.com/QZfFLGSBmr— Sofia Lövgren (@Sofia_Lovgren) June 16, 2019
A tearful Lövgren states:
“This guy, Samuel Grassi, also stole money from me. Please help us share this video in the whole poker community, on social media – we don’t want anyone to ever get scammed by this guy again”.
Grassi’s criminal record shows a long list of crimes and fraud
A quick search of Samuel Grassi online shows a horrendous list of fraud and crimes committed by the now 39-year old.
Czech poker media avidly followed court cases from Prague during 2016 and 2017 in which Grassi was convicted of defrauding poker players of more than 4million Czech crowns (about £140,000/€155,000/$175,000).
Spanish Pro David Laka Calzada also among the victims
Among his victims was the young Spanish poker player David Laka Calzada.
The Spaniard, who took down massive scores at the partypoker MILLIONS festival Sochi in 2017, was one of many scammed by Grassi, and explained Grassi’s modus operandi to a Prague court.
Calzada stated: “He showed me photos in a mobile phone, he claimed to be an entrepreneur. He went everywhere with his entourage, with his gorilla,” supporting Antonius’ recent warning.
Grassi, who sometimes goes by the name Samuel de Grassi, was revealed in the Czech case and others to have used photos of himself with famous footballers and poker players to lure unsuspecting victims into trusting his claimed position as a manager…
“He supported his claims with photographs from famous footballers, such as Ronaldo,” a spokesman for the Czech Police, Tomáš Hulan, was reported as saying.
Samuel Grassi was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison
Grassi was sentenced to two and a half years in jail for his Czech offences, the media reporting that he also faced more charges in the Czech Republic as well as similar charges in French courts.
Antonius’ now-deleted story mentioned that Grassi had recently been released from prison in France, but it is unclear how much jailtime he actually served in both countries.
Steve O’Dwyer avoids getting scammed
Highroller specialist Steve O’Dwyer also took to Twitter to relate a near-miss with the scumbag scamster…
I ran into Samuel Grassi several years ago and he tried to get me to come play a private high stakes game, name dropping @Patrik_Antonius and several other high stakes players, showing me pictures of himself with the people he was name dropping. https://t.co/nOnHxwJmlI
— steveodwyer (@steveodwyer) June 16, 2019
Again Grassi followed his formulaic scamming approach, but fortunately for O’Dwyer he checked with some friends – Grassi scared off when O’Dwyer tried to snap a pic of him…
I was skeptical and msgd one of the ppl he name dropped to see if they knew him and they said “no, but get a picture of him.” I tried to get a sneaky picture of him but he noticed, got real agitated with me and then left. Over the next few months I heard of him scamming others.
— steveodwyer (@steveodwyer) June 16, 2019
Despite having a Hendon Mob listing showing $60,359 in cashes, stories from the Czech poker community indicate that Grassi’s play was random and erratic to say the least.
The 2016 WSOP Main Event final tablist, Vojtech Ruzicka, recalls how Grassi spewed four €5k buy-ins at the WPT Prague event, others sharing stories such as ‘a single open shove from UTG, he boasted a combination of 3, 2. “I would bet my dog, my Bentley and my sister,” Grassi said after the hand.’
Warnings should be taken seriously
The warnings about Grassi and his history of scamming and threatening poker players should be taken very seriously by the community.
Although a fairly easy to recognise person, Lovgren tweeted some details of Grassi’s tattoos to help you spot him – the scammer also having a small tattoo on the right side of his neck.
Recognize the tattoos on his hands pic.twitter.com/KYuzMYqLlM
— Sofia Lövgren (@Sofia_Lovgren) June 16, 2019
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