Extortion Attempt Against Poker Pros Punished in Court

Apr 23, 2013
Extortion Attempt Against Poker Pros Punished in Court
Many eyebrows were raised over a case in the Los Angeles court involving a fall 2010 attempt to extort hundreds of thousands of dollars from several high profile poker players, including Joe Sebok. According to prosecutors, two California men were sentenced to federal prison for hacking into the email accounts of the professional poker players and using naked pictures and private information to extort hundreds of thousands of dollars. One of them, Tyler Schrier, 23, was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison while the other one, Keith James Hudson, 39, was sentenced to two years, specified Assistant U.S. Attorney Wendy T. Wu. Schrier pleaded guilty to conspiracy, extortion, and unauthorized access to a protected computer, as well as that he had previously extorted more than $26,000 in a separate plot, and the latter pleaded guilty to unauthorized access to a protected computer for financial gain. Apart from Sebok, the names of other victims have not been revealed in the court documents. The perpetrators apparently threatened to make the illegally obtained emails and pictures public unless Sebok and other victims paid hundreds of thousands of dollars. Schrier later sent a nude photo of Sebok to about 100 people, the prosecutor said. During the sentencing on Apr. 22, Sebok addressed the court, saying the plot's victims had "their lives altered and shattered in irreparable ways," and adding that the photos caused him to lose work representing brands in the poker industry, and damaged his reputation. "In short, I was no longer able to maintain my then-current level of participation in the poker industry, representing the brands that I had been previously, as well as greatly destroying my ability to do so with new companies moving forward. "Without belaboring the point too much, it was a nightmare, and one that I was forced to live through with millions of people watching," he said. A third defendant in the case, 22-year-old Ryder Finney, reportedly pleaded guilty to conspiracy and his prison term will be decided later this month.
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