Diamond Spade Club -- High-end, Miami-based VIP club for rich poker players, or scam?

[Dan Druff]

This was brought to my attention today.

Behold, the Diamond Spade Club Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/diamondspadeclub/

Here's their website, which is pretty much just a login page: http://diamondspade.club

Diamond Spade Club is apparently run by Alain Vogel and Carl Pion. I haven't heard of either of them.

It's supposed to be a high-end VIP club, based out of Miami, aimed at rich poker players.

However, here's what RealGrinders (Facebook group) member Jonny Ferrari said about them today:

**TRUE SCAMMERS CAUGHT RED HANDED: DIAMOND SPADE CLUB/ALAIN VOGEL/CARL PION**

Ok guys I know everyone is aware of the poker criminal Carl Pion whom ripped off many poker pros (over 10 reached out to me). But don't forget the rat-faced scum that keeps saying "dm me if problem with Carl". Alain Vogel and his scam "company" diamond spade. It's going to fail anyway.

Common sense 101: if Alain Vogel was successful or legitimate in any way he would not be having con-men seek investors for a concept that everyone is to "prepay" $10,000 for a fake membership for, for fake events that will never happen.

Even with misusing the images of two pros his scam page has a mere 44 likes. No one here is stupid to fall for his nor Carl Pion's scams farther.

But if anyone asks about "Diamond Spade" scam, send them to me and in turn the 12-14 victims already out of pocket.

He tried to talk shit about me (nice try my legitimate business has been running since 2005) today to Gavin Smith and ol' G told him point blank his "business model" is retarded. R.I.P con-men schemes!

Here is a Ripoff Report page on the situation (created today): https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports...lorida-1434335

Presumably Jonny Ferrari is the one who created the above Ripoff Report, so keep that in mind.

Andy Ansicar on RealGrinders said, "Carl scammed me out of 10k."

Apparently Daniel Cates and Patrik Antonius have been talked into being ambassadors for Diamond Spade Club. I'm guessing they know little about the guys they're representing:




Here's an odd article from Alain Vogel on LinkedIn, entitled "What Sevices Do Wealthy People Expect?": https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-...ct-alain-vogel

Reportedly they are soliciting investment money from people. with promises regarding a bunch of great events coming up. Memberships to the club are said to cost $10,000. I haven't seen proof of this, but my gut instinct is to believe it.

[Dan Druff]

Here is Carl Pion:



Apparently Carl Pion started something called "Global Poker Link" in 2015, which I don't think really went anywhere. I don't believe it's related to current online poker website Global Poker. Here's an article about it: https://calvinayre.com/2015/05/22/po...al-poker-link/





Here is Alain Vogel:

[PokerPrince2]

One of them not sure who posted in realgrinders today proclaiming innoncence.

[Dan Druff]

Yup, here's the RealGrinders statement by Alain Vogel:

Over the past week or so my company, Carl Pion and myself Alain Vogel, the CEO of Diamond Spade Club have been the targets of a very serious and malicious social media attack initiated by Marc McLay aka Jonny Ferrari.

We are extremely dumbfounded as to what set off such an attack that was hate filled, and full of unsubstantiated, slanderous, defamatory, and completely unfounded statements that included constant harassment of poker professionals that included Gavin Smith, Antonio Esfandiari, and Phil Laak.

It is apparent that Marc McLay's claims were intended to severely damage the reputations of myself, Carl and our Diamond Spade brand, but unfortunately those claims have been fully refuted by Gavin and Antonio, giving us full comfort and satisfaction that we have acted professionally and cordially at all times.

What I can say is this. Due to the incredulous actions taken by Marc McLay, which included the posting of Carl's home address, and more importantly the constant utterings of death threats sent to me personally by Marc by way of numerous audio files, we were forced to take appropriate action by involving law enforcement who have now made official contact with Marc regarding this matter.

In final, I would also like to clarify (which can easily be verified via a background check) that neither Carl or myself have a criminal record, and that the business model of Diamond Spade Club is founded on transparency and trust, so much so that our model is structured where all membership fees and/or players funds are placed directly with a 3rd party legally registered fiduciary.

We recognize that this personal attack has possibly caused tremendous damage to our reputations and our brand, and that we will have some work ahead of us to repair the damage as we get set to launch our brand globally. But rest assured that we will continue to vigorously defend our reputations and our brand against any and all unsubstantiated, slanderous, defamatory, and unfounded claims in the future.

Thank you for your support.

[Dan Druff]

Here was my response:

Alain Vogel, I am the owner of PokerFraudAlert -- the site which had the write-up of Jonny Ferrari's claims, as well as the radio show in which he appeared last night.

Please understand that I do not know you, Carl, or Jonny, and in fact I didn't know any of you existed until about 30 hours ago.

My site exists to expose the TRUTH about scams, shady companies, shady individuals, and fraudulent schemes.

However, at the same time, I believe in equal time, and believe in giving everyone the right to defend themselves.

You are welcome to appear on our radio show next week to give your side of the story. I have already posted your above statement on our site.

In the meantime, I would like to ask you the following questions:

1) Do you believe that Carl Pion has scammed anyone in the past 10 years? If you don't, how do you explain the accusations from Andy Asnicar and others?

2) Diamond Spade Club has its office listed in the 1221 Brickell Ave building in downtown Miami. However, it appears to simply be a "virtual" office and mail stop. Does Diamond Spade Club have an actual office to itself in Miami or anywhere else?

3) Does Diamond Spade Club have any paying clients yet? If so, how many?

4) Would you be willing to prove Diamond Spade Club's liquidity to an independent auditor or third party?

5) Have you solicited investors to Diamond Spade Club yet? If so, would you be willing to share the sales pitch you have used to get these investors?

6) Are there any events planned for Diamond Spade Club which can be independently verified with the venues?

[Dan Druff]

If Jonny Ferrari's real name is Marc McLay, I don't know why he told us last night on the radio show that his real, legal name is Jonathan Ferrari.

Like, that's not a huge point, but I do find it mildly irritating when people come onto the radio show and lie to me. (Perhaps he's legally changed his name, though, so maybe he was technically telling the truth.)

Anyway, I do have to say that Diamond Spade Club looks suspicious in various ways, but as I do not have any proof of wrongdoing on their part, I can't be sure if any of these accusations against them are true.

Even if Alain Vogel is legit and is acting above board with Diamond Spade Club, it's a big problem if he's aligning himself with Carl Pion, if indeed it turns out that Carl has been scamming people. Alain can't simply wash his hands of that, unless he wants to cut Carl out of the business completely.