Tekintamgac Arrested, Karabulut Wanted in Germany

Live poker scammers’ group is wanted by the German police. Local press reports Ali Tekintamgac to be under arrest since late September.

First reported by the Augsburger Allgemeine and later confirmed by other sources, WPT title holder Ali Tekintamgac is in the custody of the Augsburg police department. He was arrested late September on the charges of running an international live poker cheater group. Another suspect, also wanted by the authorities, is Kadir Karabulut, who might have fled to Turkey. He disappeared in March this year and many claimed he had become victim of a crime but at the moment, it seems more viable that he has been at large ever since.

Karabulut was last seen in Germany by one of his friends, whom he told he would go to Munich for a couple of days. In April, his Audi A4 car was found near Augsburg, with numerous electronic devices in it that could be used for cheating methods in live poker games.

Tekintamgac was first busted in November 2010, when he was disqualified from the Partouche Poker Tour Cannes Main Event for having people disguised as bloggers report to him on opponents’ cards. In January 2011, Karabulut was excluded from the Utrecht Dom Classics Main Event; his friend Tekintamgac was also at the venue, although the latter was not playing.

The two of them moved on to enter smaller events and play cash games. Based on the devices found in the car, their methods had in the meantime been refined: allegedly, they marked cards and the markings were only able see through special contact lenses. According to the German police, the group focusing on live poker cheating is likely to count several dozens of members and the centre of their operations is Germany with some players from neighbouring countries also involved.

Previously, Serbian Perica Bukara, Macedonian Dejan Dimov and Turkish Deniz Yavuz have been listed as suspects in cases of cheating; Yavuz used to own the Nurnberg Card Club, frequented by both Tekintamgac and Karabulut, they all belonging to the same group of friends.

Tekintamgac’s legal representative Michael Weiss refused to reply to the questions of the press and stated he would first introduce the defence at the court hearing.