Another Absolute Poker Scammer ID'd!

This just keeps getting bigger and bigger, regardless what officials at Absolute Poker say to try and put out the fire. A second name has surfaced, a certain A.J. Green, apparently an associate and close friend of Scott Tom, the first big-wig implicated. One thing I can tell you about all this is that no matter how many names end up publicly linked to this scandal, we will never know the full scale of it. This scam is huge! I have been getting tons of e-mails asking if it is still safe to play online poker. My response is always the same, as it was in my book "Dirty Poker." Playing online poker is safe most of the time, which really means about two-thirds of the time, I mean COMPLETELY safe. Granted, I don't expect to see many scams of this nature, but the sites, contrary to what they claim, are not entirely safe from outside hackers. Remember this: if they can hack US government sites, they can hack offshore online poker sites.

Here's the latest article:

Absolute Poker Scandal: Who is AJ Green?

The weekend hardly got in the way of the ongoing "Absolute Poker scandal" involving an internal breach where at least one AP high ranking employee had been cheating real customers. The online poker community is intent on believing that others from the company may also be involved.

Today, the regulatory body licensing Absolute Poker released a statement and all eyes now seem to be focusing on one AJ Green, who had previously been employed as a manager at Nine.com and as a former Vice President of Operations at Absolute Poker. He is said to also be close friends with another suspect in the Absolute Poker scandal, Scott Tom.

Many have said AJ Green is still with Nine.com in Costa Rica even though that company was moved to the Netherlands Antilles last year and most of its management staff were either let go or moved to Curacao.

From the Nine.com website:

Nine.com is now privately owned with offices and representatives in Curacao and Antigua. Recognized for its outstanding service to its customers, the management team who have built Nine.com remain in place and are committed to continuing to provide the same excellent service.

It should be noted that while AJ Green may have been in management at Nine.com, he was far from high ranking. Gambling911.com was close to all the Nine.com executives prior to being absorbed into VIP.com. In fact, we attended their 2005 celebrity Super Bowl bash in Las Vegas along with cast members of the Sopranos who were good friends with Mike (Nichols) from Nine.com (not to mention Superman Dean Cain).

Both Nine.com and Absolute Poker operated next store to one another in a Mall outside of Escazu, Costa Rica. Another online gambling company, Jazz Sports, operated out of the same mall.

AJ Green and Scott Tom are believed to have become good friends during the period in which the two businesses operated alongside one another. It does not appear that AJ Green was part of the fraternity that the original founders of Absolute Poker were members of. Gambling911.com has always been well aware that AP was started by a bunch of poker playing fraternity brothers. AJ Green can easily be implicated here. Don't think for a moment that these frat brothers are going to implicate one another if any were involved. That simply won't happen.

AJ Green is described by those who know him in Costa Rica as an "a**hole". We hardly knew the guy to say one way or another.

By late Sunday, PocketFives was reporting that the "culprit" was indeed a person "second in charge" at Absolute, which goes against previous statements that this individual was either a "tech geek who knew the software intimately" or a "consultant".

"This person was the second in charge and has been fired from Absolute Poker, and his one superior Scott Tom is going to be removed from running AP for a significant period of time. For legal reasons the Absolute Poker release is not going to specifically name this person, and I will elaborate on that fact and why it makes perfect sense. Most of us know this persons name already as it has already been widely reported."

A representative for Absolute Poker told Gambling911.com that he is hopefully that this individual's name will be released.

"This person was Scott Tom's best friend and actually lived at Scott Tom's house in Costa Rica. Scott Tom has been living in Panama for quite some time, and the day to day operations of AP were left to the care of his best friend and second in charge at AP. Unfortunately since the person in command of AP was also the thief he obviously issued numerous steadfast denials of any wrong doing. Basically he was investigating himself.

"Since this person was a high ranking official he had access to very sensitive information, not only regarding the operations of the company, but also very sensitive information regarding player accounts, balances, names, deposits, withdrawals etc. Because of the Internet Gaming Act their is still a wide gray area as to what is sensitive and what is not. As such the attorneys for both AP and the KGC have the same opinion that is best not to release his name publicly for the simple fact that they do not want more harm being done to the industry as a result of this person possibly trying to disclose this information publicly as a retaliation for him being fired from AP.

"Further, even though Scott Tom was not involved in the actual theft, he is responsible for the actions of his friend and second in charge of the company, which is why he is being removed for a significant time frame while the entire process of restoring trust in AP takes place."

Scott Tom is currently in hiding and no doubt fearing for his life and the possibility that he could be taken into custody, which is essentially what the online poker community wants to see at this point. He has not made any statements.

There are also reports that the individual behind this cheating scandal has a serious coke habit.

An individual posting anonymously on the MajorWager.com posting forum claims that original shareholders in Absolute Poker are owed a total of USD 250,000,000 and that Scott Tom has "blown them off".

"Let's discuss exactly how Scott Tom and his cronies have treated shareholders. These are the people that risked their hard-earned savings to give Absolute Poker its start many years ago.

"Scott Tom and his cronies have totally blown off shareholders. While they are busy flying around the World spending thousands and thousands on luxury - shareholders have seen little more than a trickle.

"Today, Shareholders are totally ignored by Scott Tom and his Absolute Poker Management. Calls and emails are ignored. Shareholders have no access to Scott Tom. Behind a curtain setup by lawyers, Absolute Poker was sold to yet another shell company belonging to Scott Tom. This minimized any return shareholders can get."