Not sure how old this story is . Seems a ton of stuff was going on here . Who is the poker player? Anybody have any ideas?
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime...cid=spartanntp
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Not sure how old this story is . Seems a ton of stuff was going on here . Who is the poker player? Anybody have any ideas?
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime...cid=spartanntp
Business partner? I'd call security if I ever saw this guy walk into my office building
Very interesting story.
Anyone who has 10 minutes to spare should read it.
It has a minor WSOP connection (as Gookie mentioned), in that a WSOP player was scammed by Edward Shin (the murderer in the story), and the victim poker player was supposedly "considering taking a contract out on him".
However, the player is not named, other than being a "WSOP winner", which means it could be any bracelet winner over the many decades of the event (maybe even me!)
I don't believe the contract story. How could this be corroborated? I'm guessing the WSOP winner told the article author this during the interview, simply to sound like less of a mark.
Though a minor part of the story, one of the elements I found fascinating was Shin's use of arm-candy-for-hire at nightclubs. Basically, he would invite business associates and other potential marks to the club, where he would be surrounded by beautiful women. These women would not only be seemingly interested in hanging out with Shin, but also would immediately take an interest in any other dude Shin brought into the group.
The guy who set all of this up for Shin -- a Vegas VIP arranger named Tom Ramey -- best described it as. "The illusion was that this guy was so cool that he would just show up and women would flock to the table and fuck everybody there." Ramey said that Shin made him promise not to reveal anyone that these women were paid -- essentially high-end hookers who agreed beforehand to bang any guy in the group who showed interest in them.
I wonder how many other bottle-service areas for Vegas clubs are filled with paid hookers, rather than hot chicks voluntarily hanging all over guys that you would otherwise be jealous of when you walk by them.
BTW, I looked up Edward Shin and couldn't find a single poker tournament cash for him ever. That surprised me, given that he somehow got to know a WSOP winner well enough to scam him, was a high-stakes pit gambler, and definitely was in the need for quick, big money (which tournaments can provide if you get lucky enough). Perhaps Shin did play, but was so bad that he failed to cash a single time.
The police work here was beyond bad. I know the parents were considering suing, and they really should. It was only due to a coincidence that a PI got involved (in order to chase down a $40,000 debt to a landlord), who then stumbled upon super-obvious evidence that Shin was likely the murderer. Among the fails of Laguna Beach PD:
- Why didn't they attempt to track down "Tiffany the Playboy model", given that they had her picture? Apparently it showed up when doing a reverse image search (LOL!)
- Why didn't they attempt to authenticate the location of the international e-mails supposedly coming from Smith -- something which would have been easy to do with a warrant?
- Why didn't they investigate Smith's business partner (Shin) a bit further, given that he was the last one to be seen with Smith? A quick background check would have uncovered all of the scamming.
- Why didn't they bother visiting Smith's place of business, where they would have seen the blood splatters everywhere -- which Shin inexplicably didn't clean well at all?
It looks like Edward Shin was an incredibly moronic criminal, and yet he almost evaded arrest for murder because the police investigating it were even dumber.
The trial was scheduled for January 12, then delayed until January 19, then "might be delayed another 8 weeks", which still would mean it would have started by now: https://www.lagunabeachindy.com/murd...ath-postponed/
His attorney also claims that they had a jailhouse informant giving information to police, but prosecutors swore they wouldn't use the information at trial, thereby allowing themselves to avoid giving it to Shin's defense attorney: https://mynewsla.com/orange-county/2...llers-oc-cell/
And in an odd coincidence, both of Shin's attorneys are familiar to me in different ways.
Allan Stokke is the father of Alison Stokke, the "hot pole vaulter girl" who became an internet sensation about a decade ago.
Ed Welbourn went to high school with me, and was in my grade. I knew him, but we were never friends. His younger brother is John Welbourn, NFL player from 1999-2008.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dan Druff
Possibly a good radio topic? My guess in who the Wsop Player was is obvious to me . Jamie Gold . I understand it wasn't mentioned what event but doesn't this type of shady dealings in business seem up his alley?
LOLQuote:
The phone call wasn't the only screw-up. Shin instructed the 800Xchange's employees to work from home for the entire week after the crime so that he could have the office professionally cleaned. When a maintenance man for the office complex showed up at suite 123, he noticed "a lot" of blood on the walls and carpet; Shin told him that he had cut his arm while slicing an apple, according to police.
my guess on the WSOP player is Russ Hamilton. Isn't he a high stakes blackjack guy, too?
Not surprised Shin could lure in a bracelet winner despite not having any live MTT cashes on Hendon. Plenty of bracelet winners play mid-to-high stakes cash in LA and Vegas. Also based on how badly he blows at crime and gambling, it's safe to assume he blows at poker. So he could have played a bunch of MTTs without cashing.
Also LOL at trying to sue the police for botching this. Any lawyer who takes money for that case is a much smoother criminal than Shin.
Russ doesn't go to Vegas anymore.Quote:
Originally Posted by Shizzmoney
Even if he did, he's way too much of a conman himself to get taken by a scheme like this.
Does he live in Florida now? I wonder if he frequents the casinos down there.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dan DruffRuss doesn't go to Vegas anymore.Quote:
Originally Posted by Shizzmoney
Even if he did, he's way too much of a conman himself to get taken by a scheme like this.
The guy was always a hustler - always doing something - hard to imagine he isn't up to something somewhere.
I've heard he still does to golf (his first hustle) and even had the balls to a few mths after all the shit went down.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dan DruffRuss doesn't go to Vegas anymore.Quote:
Originally Posted by Shizzmoney
2016: "Russ Hamilton plays golf every day in Las Vegas with no remorse."
Also it sounds like these events happened around the boom time in poker (2006-2010)? Plenty of money for con men to snag around that time so I would suspect it was any braclet winner who was linked a poker site
BUMP
Updates:
Edward Shin was convicted earlier this month of first degree murder: https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/...207-story.html
More details about the murder and the trial: https://www.ocregister.com/2018/12/2...months-before/
Recently revealed was the fact that a huge coincidence occurred. Chris Smith was supposedly with "Tiffany the Playboy Model", traveling around the world. In reality, Chris was dead, and Tiffany was simply a picture that Edward Shin had googled and attached to an e-mail to Chris' family, posing as Chris. Anyway, a few months into this, Chris' brother Paul was in Las Vegas, and saw the real Tiffany working as a model at some event! He approached her and asked, "Why aren't you with my brother?", and she had no clue what he was talking about.
Neither article I linked above made mention of the astoundingly bad police work by the Laguna Beach Police Department. Sometimes area newspapers are afraid to criticize police, fearing that they will lose access to details about juicy stories in the future.
It was either on dateline or 48 hours I saw it rescently, he broke up with girlfriend by text blood all over the office where the crime was commited.
You're not kidding.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bootsy Collins
Sadly, small, low-crime city police departments are surprisingly bad at solving serious crimes.
People often live with a false sense of security that a wealthy city with its own police department is able to hire highly competent, dedicated officers who aren't bogged down by big police department bureaucracy.
Sadly, that's not at all the case.
The detectives at such departments often lack experience investigating serious cases, and they bungle things all over the place. Compare this to huge departments such as LAPD or NYPD, where they have dedicated detectives to matters such as homicide.
The detectives at small departments are jacks-of-all-trades, and work on very little other than property crimes and minor assault cases.
The general rule of thumb is that you want a large department investigating a big crime, and a small department investigating a small crime.
The reason? Small departments (especially in low crime areas) tend to have little to do, so they have a lot of time to dedicate to investigating minor crimes, whereas large departments (such as LAPD) do everything they can to discourage people from filing reports in the first place. And when you insist upon filing a report, they do a 5-second investigation and tell you there's nothing further they can do. I remember in the early '90s in Mammoth when someone vandalized my parents' car. The police there were incredibly on top of it, and treated it like they were handling a major case. That's because Mammoth has very little crime, especially back in the early '90s before it expanded. At the time, my parents remarked they would have been laughed out of the station if they had reported the same vandalism to the LAPD.
However, when it comes to big crimes, the large departments have a ton of more experience and don't bungle things nearly as often. (The OJ Simpson case was an exception, as that was a mess from the LAPD's side.)
Some of you also might remember the Boulder, Colorado police department bungling the JonBenet Ramsey case, leaving it unsolved to this day. That was actually the public's first look into the incompetence of small town police departments.
You're usually better off being served by the county sheriff as compared to your small city having its own PD, unless the county sheriff is based too far away.
I don't want to derail this thread, but I just remembered an LOL encounter I had with the LAPD in 2009.
I was living in Las Vegas at the time. My friend Ken Scalir was dating on-and-off a certain crazy chick. She was taking advantage of him and treating him like crap, so I was unhappy with this and spoke out about it. Well, she didn't take well to that, and started texting me hundreds of times with all sorts of vile crap, including anti-Semitic stuff. I ignored it at first. Then she started hammering me with phone calls over and over, which again I ignored. Finally I called he back and we had a big argument where we were both talking all kinds of shit to each other. Then we continued the shit talking via text. Then I decided to just ignore her again, figuring that was the best way to make this crazy person go away.
Well, she went and reported me to the LAPD for "harassment", and of course left out the part that she was the one actually harassing me. She just claimed that I called her and texted her with harassing messages.
The LAPD didn't give a shit, and waited until Day #30 to investigate at all (they have 30 days to do a preliminary investigation).
Anyway, some schlub detective called me and told me to stop calling her.
I told him the full story, and he didn't seem interested.
He said, "Again, I need you to stop calling and texting that girl, or you're breaking the law and can be arrested for it."
I responded, "I won't call or text her unless she calls or texts me first. At that point, I have a right to respond if I want."
He answered, "No, you don't. Again, you're going to have to stop calling and texting her under all circumstances."
I said back, "Incorrect. If she calls or texts me, I reserve the right to respond if I'm so inclined. If you want to try and arrest me for that, go right ahead, and see what happens. I'm not going to bother her, but if she bothers me, then she can't cry foul if I return or texts or calls."
Flustered, the guy said, "Well, I heard you're in Las Vegas. Can you provide me with your address?"
I declined.
"Why are you hiding your address from us?", he asked.
"I'm not hiding anything. But we have no business here. If you want my address for a frivolous report, you're welcome to look it up for yourself. Is there anything else you need?"
He finally gave up and said he was closing the case.
:lol