Online poker fraud
On Monday 20 October 2014 at Sheffield Crown Court, two weeks into a four-week trial, Darren Woods pleaded guilty to nine counts of fraud by false representation from the 13 indictments which he had started the trial with.
On Tuesday 21 October 2014 his father, Morteza Gharoon, pleaded guilty to money laundering of a value not more than £230,000.
The criminal investigation commenced in late 2011 by the Economic Crime Unit for Humberside Police with the assistance and co-operation of many well-known gambling companies. This led to the two defendants being arrested from their address in Healing, near Grimsby on 16th November 2011.
In December 2011 a restraint order was served on both Woods and Morteza Gharoon freezing all of their assets.
Darren Woods, aka ‘Dooshcom’, declared bankrupt in 2006, opened accounts with a number of gambling companies using the details of friends and family, which included his mother and his father Morteza Gharoon, who became his co-defendant. Counts one to eight on the indictment reflected the opening of the gambling accounts in those third party names.
Woods used monetary accounts in his father’s name to assist in opening, financing and making payments into gambling accounts.
Woods is known to have used the electronic payment service ‘Moneybookers Ltd’ now known as ‘Skrill’. He opened accounts in same third party names which then allowed him to send monies to and from the gambling accounts. These accounts were affiliated back to himself. The huge amount of monies moved through the accounts enabled each account to benefit from bonuses from ‘Moneybookers’ but also meant that Woods obtained commission fees also. This activity was covered by the counts nine and ten on the indictment.
Woods was a well-known professional gambler. Despite winning a World Series of Poker bracelet in Vegas 2011 he went on to use his numerous accounts under his control, held in different names, to collude on a number of gambling networks. The poker forum ‘2plus2’ was used by a number of players to produce their evidence of what they suspected was occurring on the ‘888’ network and potential other activity on the gambling network ‘iPoker’. The investigation identified three separate periods where Woods clearly had control of more than one player on the same table as other gamblers. This activity was covered by three separate counts of fraud by false representation on the indictment.
In the summer of 2013 Darren Woods and Morteza Gharoon were charged and put into the criminal justice system for England.
The trial commenced on Wednesday 8 October 2014 at Sheffield Crown court with Darren Woods facing thirteen counts of fraud by false representation.
Morteza Gharoon was included in four of these and had a separate count of money laundering.
Evidence was heard from a number of witnesses from the gambling companies over the following couple of weeks, until Monday 20 October, when Woods pleaded guilty to four of the fraud offences involved in the opening of gambling accounts; both of the counts involving the fraudulent activity with ‘Moneybookers’ accounts and all three fraud offences surrounding the collusion activity.
The following day Morteza Gharoon pleaded guilty to money laundering.
Both defendants are now on court bail awaiting sentence which is expected to be on 17 December 2014.
Humberside police would like to take the opportunity to thank all of the gambling companies, ‘Skrill’ and other individuals that readily and willingly assisted with both the investigation and the court proceedings.