Dennis Blieden
In an interesting and unfortunate case,former World Poker Tour L. A. Poker Classic champion Dennis Blieden has pledguilty to several charges of embezzlement of millions of dollars. While he hasn’tbeen sentenced yet, it is highly likely the poker champion will not see theoutside world for some time.
Charges Include Identity Theft, Wire Fraud
The U. S. Attorney for the Central Districtof California, which covers the area of Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and San Bernardinocounties (among others), has confirmed for several outlets that Blieden changedhis plea in his case earlier this week. The plea deal accepted by Blieden coversall the charges that were presented against him, including one charge ofidentity theft, two charges of unlawful forfeiture and 11 counts of wire fraud.Those 14 charges cover more than $22 million that Blieden unlawfully took froman employer.
In 2015, Blieden went to work for acompany called StyleHaul, Inc, and Blieden would pillage the company’s accountsfor the entirety of his four years of employment with the company. Over thattime, Blieden would use the money to fund his poker play around the world, histravel and even his debts to other players. Perhaps the biggest crime in theeyes of the authorities, however, was Blieden’s investment in cryptocurrency, inwhich Blieden took over $8.4 million.
In 2019, StyleHaul shuttered operations, which coincided with the arrest & guilty plea of Dennis Blieden, 29, a former StyleHaul executive & professional poker player who embezzled $22 million from the company to pay his poker debts, personal debts and bad investments in cryptocurrencies. Dennis Blieden is an American poker player originally from Cincinnati, Ohio. Blieden won the WPT L.A. Poker Classic for $1,000,000 in 2018 and seemed as if his poker career was going to take off but less than a year later Blieden would plead guilty to theft of over $22 million from employers, and using the stolen funds to purchase crypto currency. Dennis Blieden is an American poker player originally from Cincinnati, Ohio. Blieden won the WPT L.A. Poker Classic for $1,000,000 in 2018 and seemed as if his poker career was going to take off but less than a year later Blieden would plead guilty to theft of over $22 million from employers, and using the stolen funds to purchase crypto currency. Back in March of 2018, an unknown in the poker world named Dennis Blieden rose to the top of a tough field of 493 entries to take down the $10,000 buy-in World Poker Tour L.A. Poker Classic Main.
With the guilty plea, Blieden is looking to avoid a massive amount of time in prison. If he had been convicted in court of the charges, Blieden was looking at over 200 years as a sentence. By accepting the plea bargain, Blieden is potentially looking at a sentence of 22 years, of which he’ll probably only serve three-quarters depending on his conduct in prison. Blieden is due to be sentenced in March 2020 and he will be staying in prison until that sentencing as the courts have determined him to be a flight risk.
The Fall is Worse than the Climb
It is truly a monumental fall for a pokerplayer who seemingly once had it all.
While employed by StyleHaul (it isentirely possible, but unproven, that Blieden used some of the funds from his embezzlementoperation to enter this tournament), Blieden entered the 2018 World Poker Tour L.A. Poker Classic Main Event, one of the few $10,000 events left on the WPT andalso one of its most prestigious events. Battling through the 493-entry field,Blieden was able to defeat such players as Garrett Greer, Anthony Zinno, andToby Lewis on his way to claiming the title and the $1 million payday that wentalong with it.
A taste of the “big time” proved to be too much for Blieden to handle, however. Blieden would not cash again in 2018, despite being a fixture on the tournament circuit. He wouldn’t make another cash until the 2019 World Series of Poker, where he min-cashed the $1500 Bounty event, and made a deep run in the partypoker MILLIONS Las Vegas, finishing 17th in that tournament for a $35,000 payday. It was after that finish in the MILLIONS that Blieden was arrested and taken into custody.
It is somewhat surprising that Blieden wasn’t caught before he was arrested. Many of the checks he wrote were directly to others in the poker community. He also leased property in Mexico in the company’s name without telling the company about it. Companies of this size usually have auditors that would catch such acts, but Blieden apparently covered his tracks well – well enough to get away with the crimes for almost four years.
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Disgraced poker player Dennis Blieden has pleaded guilty to embezzling more than $22 million from his former employers then using the stolen funds to purchase cryptocurrency.
Formerly of Santa Monica but now a Cincinnati resident, 30-year-old Blieden held his hands up and pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated identity theft and one count of wire fraud. The US Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California has warned Blieden faces the statutory maximum sentence of 22 years in federal prison. He has been detained until his sentencing hearing on March 20.
Blieden was the vice president of accounting and finance, and controller of StyleHaul, a digital company formerly based in Hollywood but that relocated to London earlier this year.
The court heard Blieden has control over the company’s bank accounts and abused his position to wire company funds to his personal bank account. Blieden funded his cryptocurrency account with the stolen money.
Huge Sums Paid to Poker Players, Credit cards, and Cryptocurrency Sites
According to court documents, the thefts occurred between October 2015 and March 2019. A staggering $8,473,734 was transferred to Blieden’s cryptocurrency accounts, with some of those accounts used to fund Blieden’s online gambling.
A further $1,204,000 was written in personal checks to poker players, with an additional $1,134,956 used to pay off his credit card debts.
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Bleiden made fraudulent entries into the accounting records of StyleHaul in order to conceal his embezzlement scheme. Those entries were made to look like legitimate company expenses and authorized payments to StyleHaul clients. Other entries were made to look like the transfers to Blieden’s personal accounts were “equity” draws the company owed him.
Furthermore, Blieden falsified wire transfer letters claiming to be from Western Union. These were designed to appear Blieden made wire transfers from StyleHaul to money the company owed clients.
As Blieden’s stealing continued to spiral out of control, he created a fictitious lease for the rental of a condominium in Rosarito Beach, Mexico, in May 2018. Blieden admitted forging the signature of a fellow StyleHaul executive to push the lease through.
Dennis Blieden Mug Shot
The plea agreement entered by Blieden saw him admit transferring $230,000 of StyleHaul’s funds after pretending the condo was being rented to StyleHaul’s employees and clients for business purposed. Instead, Blieden pocketed the money. It is this falsifying of the executive’s signature that has landed Blieden with an aggravated identity theft charge.
Blieden Funds His Poker Playing; Banks Seven-Figure Prize
Court papers also revealed that on February 21 and 22, shortly before Blieden was dismissed from his StyleHaul job, he entered two poker tournaments. The paper claims the buy-in amounts were $52,000 and $103,000 respectively.
Dennis Blieden Cincinnati Ohio
On February 24, Blieden also entered the $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em WPT L.A. Poker Classic Championship. He outlasted 492-opponents, including defeating British star Toby Lewis heads-up, to secure the $1 million first-place prize.
The figures of $52,000 and $103,000 may not be accurate because if Blieden was in Los Angeles for the L.A. Poker Classic, the only tournaments running on those days were a $1,100 buy-in event on February 21 and a $5,250 buy-in event on February 22. This would mean he had to re-enter 46 times in the former and 18 times in the latter, which seems extremely unlikely.
No other tournaments listed on The Hendon Mob results page give any indication as to what tournaments Blieden listed in his plea agreement.
Blieden continued playing poker right up to being arrested. He cashed in the $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em Bounty event at this year’s World Series of Poker for $1,603. Blieden also finished 17th from 536-entrants in the $10,300 partypoker LIVE MILLIONS Vegas event for a $35,000 score.
Dennis Blieden Net Worth
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