Peter Jetten, Haralabos Voulgaris call out Tom Dwan for stiffing them out of big money
This is an extremely confusing situation. I have decided to go through the statements of all of the involved parties (Tom Dwan, Peter Jetten, Haralabob Voulgaris, and Jungleman), and come up with a Cliffs Notes for this entire situation.
NOTE: The below is a summary of statements I have read, and not direct/official statements from these individuals. It is possible my interpretation is not 100% correct, but I think I'm at least pretty close.
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Tom Dwan vs. Peter Jetten
Peter claims:
- Tom bought a 50% direct piece of him in the 2020 Aussie Millions, but did so on credit, planning to pay later.
- Peter lost at the Aussie Millions, leaving Tom on the hook for $246k for his 50% piece.
- Peter can prove with receipts that he really did enter all of these events, and that Tom really owes $246k from his 50% piece.
- Prior to this, in 2019, Tom also directly staked Peter, in a deal with makeup. Peter lost here, as well. Peter bought out of the deal at some point for a percentage of the makeup (amount he was down in the stake).
- The above makeup buyout situation was completely separate from the Aussie Millions thing, and they went into the Aussie Millions deal completely square with one another.
- Peter felt confident letting Tom buy the 50% piece of the Aussie Millions on credit, because the next stop was the Triton, where Tom had friends such as Paul Phua who would likely cover the money if Tom couldn't pay. However, then COVID hit, and the Triton 2020 never occurred.
- Tom has been dodging him for 4 years regarding paying the $246k, despite repeatedly agreeing he owed it.
- Tom finally paid $20k, bringing the total down to $226k. However, he has also made numerous promises that he'd pay "next week", "next tournament", etc, and never kept to them.
- After posting the story on Twitter in mid-February 2024, Tom coughed up another $30k, bringing the total down to $196k.
- On March 9, 2024, Tom paid an additional $100k, bringing the total down to $96k.
- Peter is willing to do arbitration about this matter, but only if Tom posts the money in escrow.
Tom claims:
- Tom and Peter have been friends for a very long time, and he repeatedly helped Peter out of tough financial spots.
- Peter had a second backer, Ike Haxton, who had the other 50% of the Aussie Millions. Haxton fronted Tom's 50%, so Peter could enter. Tom claims he only wishes to deal with Haxton, even if Peter paid Haxton back for Tom's part that was never sent. (It's also not 100% clear if Haxton really had the other 50% of Peter, or if he was simply fronting money from Tom.)
- Peter would never send a full accounting of the $246k Tom owes. Every time Tom asked for it, Peter didn't send it, so Tom refused to send money until he got it. Tom does not seem to suspect he was cheated, but wants to see the full accounting.
- Peter lost in the other ("makeup") backing deal, and was down well over a million dollars of Tom's money.
- At some point, the stake was ended by Peter buying out of the makeup for a discount, which Dwan agreed to, and thus being able to play on his own dime again. This reset everything.
- Peter was a jerk by bringing this entire matter to public Twitter, and "lying" about him. For that reason, Tom is retroactively revoking the favor of letting Peter buy out of makeup for a discount, and wants some of that subtracted from any money he still owes to Peter.
- Peter is broke and desperate, and trying to use Twitter to squeeze undeserved funds out of Tom via public pressure.
- Tom will only do arbitration if the 2019 makeup matter is also part of it. He also won't post any funds in escrow.
I'll do Haralabob's situation in the next post.
