ShareA cluster of tweets has been posted telling stories about US law enforcement officials seizing large sums of cash from traveling poker pros. Ari Engel, Daniel Negreanu, and Dave “Viffer” Peat have all fallen foul of the problem in recent times.
Police State
For readers outside of the United States these stories will be horrifying. Civil forfeiture laws in the country appear to be written in such a way that it is terrifyingly easy for law enforcement to confiscate money leaving the owner with nothing but a protracted legal process to go through to retrieve their property.WPT Director Matt Savage kicked off the stories by posting a report of a 25-year-old woman traveling from Chicago with an airport layover in Dallas. She had checked in baggage containing $106,829 in cash which was promptly discovered by a sniffer dog.
It turns out that the money was quickly confiscated and the woman was sent on her way without any charges.
For the first time in my life- I had a sweat at the Asheville airport yesterday where I was pulled aside for additional screening since I had over 10k cash on me. I was lucky to be able show tax forms to prove where the money was from, but was not a fun experience. Take care yall https://t.co/T0DQxzXdba
— Ari Engel (@AriEngelPoker) December 7, 2021
The obvious worry and warning here is that poker professionals are constantly traveling by air in North America and can easily fall victim to these police powers.
Ari Engel replied to Matt Savage, saying that only the day before he had been pulled aside at Asheville Airport for additional screening and was forced to prove via tax forms where his cash in excess of $10,000 came from. Scary stuff.
Once in Miami airport I fully declared cash that I had, police searched my bag, let me through.
— Daniel Negreanu (@RealKidPoker) December 8, 2021
A DEA agent speaks to me before getting on plane.
I sit on plane, they pull me off and there are 16 officers in my face, a few who even recognized me.
Daniel Negreanu chipped in with a tale of being dragged from an aircraft even after declaring his cash. Following a police search and a chat with a DEA agent, he was still removed from his seat on the plane and surrounded by 16 officers, some of whom even knew who he was!
Dave “Viffer” Peat was one guy who really got messed around, though, and had to get his lawyer involved. But now he does at least have a plan to put off any overzealous official.
“When i travel with money i have a note attached with it, basically saying As someone who has gone through the civil forfeiture process please be advised you're wasting your time and mine. inset lawyer name and number here”
they yanked me off a flight out of detroit took 7k and my rolex, took me 90 days to get back. No reciept no chanrges no nothing, Lawyer said if i hadnt responded in 30-60 days they auto forfiet it.
— David Peat🌖 (@4viffer) December 8, 2021
Gina Fiore and Keith Gipson lost $97,000 and although they did eventually get it all back, the DEA tried to insert a clause that they wouldn’t take any legal action and even tried to bait the pair by offering a lie detector test to end the case. Fiore said it was nothing but them trying to freeroll her.
It doesn’t make good reading if you’re a player who is regularly in fear of this happening to you. Other than talking the situation over with a good lawyer the only other advice is to do your best with organizing wire transfers to your location.
