News stub from Pokerati...
A 44-year-old man allegedly tried to extort PokerListings for nearly $2 million; the site’s murdered cofounder, Andreas Oscarsson(pictured right), was to testify against him this week on aggravated racketeering charges. The unidentified man claims he was working for operatives of billionaire Stefan Bengtsson, an early investor in PokerListings and one of the richest men in Sweden — supposedly trying to collect promised monies withheld after passage of the UIGEA.
Haley Hintze (former editor of PokerNews) is following the story closely, and she’s dug up the latest from Swedish press (and 2+2). Highlights from her work below, along with a few more clicks worth of info about some of the characters emerging in this tragic tale of a boomtime poker media pioneer who became somebody’s target and a violent casualty after the online affiliate bubble burst.
Plausibly important factoids and connections:
(financial numbers based on current kronor-to-dollar rates of exchange)
It’s common practice in the Swedish press not to name accused criminals until after a verdict is reached; hence the defendant on trial for allegedly trying to extort Andreas Oscarsson (and others?) is known as just the 44-year-old man.
The 44-year-old claims he was working on behalf of a company owned by Stefan Bengtsson, trying to collect $2 million Oscarsson and PokerListings may or may not have owed to them.
Bengtsson invested about $250,000 into PokerListings in 2003. He was set to cash out for more than $7 million in 2006. But then came the UIGEA, and he received only $5 million for his shares.
Police say the indicted 44-year-old started by contacting Oscarsson’s finance people, demanding the $2 million difference. He once showed up unannounced at a PokerListings financial advisor’s home with his demands.
He soon, allegedly, began threatening Oscarsson via phone calls and text messages.
The 44-year-old also showed up to a meeting with PokerListings finance agents with Thomas Möller, former president of the Swedish Hells Angels.
Möller was president of the Hells Angels during the Great Nordic Biker War in the mid-’90s — a three-year gang battle across Scandinavia resulting in 11 dead and 96 wounded.
Möller has not been accused of any crimes in connection with this case.
As the 44-year-old’s extortion/collection efforts were underway, one of Andreas Oscarsson’s advisors was shot in the leg while getting the newspaper outside his house. Two men were arrested and later sentenced for this shooting.
Bengtsson denies any involvement, and has renounced all financial claims against Oscarsson and PokerListings.
Bengstonn was a major investor in the International biz-pol-culture rag, Monocle, which launched in 2007.
Bengstonn, 37, is the nephew of Stefan Persson, 62.
Persson is a second-generation Swedish fashion magnate and philanthropist — and the 18th richest person in the world.
Bengtsson is heir to the H&M fortune; his car collection includes a Koenigsegg, Audi A7 4.2 TDI, BMW Z8, Lamborghini Murcielago, Audi A6 Avant, Lamborghini Gallardo, and a Bentley Continental GT.
He is not a suspect in this case nor Oscarsson’s murder.
Another Andreas Oscarsson was shot to death a few months earlier in the same town; Swedish police have deemed it a case of mistaken identity.
Swedish police say they still have no suspects in the murder of PokerListings’ Andreas Oscarsson.
95 percent of violent crimes in Sweden go unsolved.
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