Poker participant Dennis Blieden, 31, was sentenced to 79 months in jail on Wednesday for embezzling $22 million from a digital advertising and marketing and expertise company that taken care of social media influencers.
Dennis Blieden craved validation from the poker gamers he had idolized on TV. He blamed his crimes on his playing and amphetamine dependancy. (Picture: NYC Poker Tour)
In February 2018, the Cincinnati native received the World Poker Tour’s LA Poker Basic for $1 million. However these winnings have been only a drop within the ocean in contrast with the cash he had already stolen from his employer, Hollywood-based StyleHaul Inc.
Blieden was the VP of accounting and finance for StyleHaul from October 2019 and had management of its financial institution accounts. In keeping with an inner SyleHaul memo filed by prosecutors, in 2017 alone he embezzled $15 million.
He did this by wiring money to his private account, whereas creating faux accounting information and bogus Western Union letters so it might seem cash was going to purchasers.
Pretend Life-style
Prosecutors stated this allowed him to stay out a fantasy elite-poker way of life, coming into the largest tournaments, enjoying within the greatest money video games, and rubbing shoulders with gamers he’d beforehand solely idolized on TV.
And he curried favor together with his new mates by backing them in tournaments. He issued greater than $1 million in checks to different gamers, in line with courtroom filings.
Blieden additionally invested a number of the stolen cash in cryptocurrency, which accrued worth. However this was not sufficient to offset the cash he misplaced playing on on-line poker and slots, as properly on the stay poker circuit.
An inner StyleHaul investigation in 2019 uncovered Blieden’s transgressions. In an interview in March that yr with fellow firm executives, he lied when requested how a lot was left of the sum he had stolen.
He stated he had round $50,000 in his private accounts and a few cryptocurrency in varied e-wallets.
However in line with the feds, he subsequently dropped $3 million into slot machines in Las Vegas after he broke up together with his longtime girlfriend.
StyleHaul Collapse
StyleHaul couldn’t survive Blieden’s monetary abuse. The agency as soon as had 5,000 digital influencers on its books, together with YouTube and Instgram stars Zoella, Joey Graceffa, and Dulce Sweet, and claimed to generate 2.5 billion views per 30 days.
It initially deliberate to shut its US operations and relocate to London, but it surely folded for good in Could 2019.
In a pre-sentencing letter to California Central District Choose André Birotte Jr., Blieden blamed his conduct on his dependancy to playing and amphetamines.
Following his WPT win, he stated he was “outwardly validated throughout the poker neighborhood and from my friends as being knowledgeable gambler, so I did all the things I might to maintain that fame alive.
“I used to be chasing my debt, but additionally making an attempt to maintain up with a way of life that was a lie,” he confessed.
