Scary Thread on PocketFives
 

Degen sounds like a real piece o shit.

And I got Bodog rakeback through this douche. Sigh.

Good thing you go through strangers for your rakeback instead of trusted people. You know... like me. Sigh.

I assumed since he was sort of part of Cardrunners he had some integrity. I was wrong.

He just pays them to advertise in their rakeback section. Poor choice of people to associate with by them...

I thought you couldnt offer rakeback at Bodog?

Edit: I guess that is no rakeback for existing accounts. Grrrrrrrrrrrrr.
I actually had someone tell me they could offer it, but I was a bit reluctant. Probably better off.

Three thoughts.

1) The most cogent response came from the guy who noted that the IRS usually takes letters like that with a huge grain of salt. When you think of it, how many thousands of similarly themed messages do we suppose they get each year?

2) On the other hand, that's one reason why I don't usually discuss win rates, etc. online.

3) And, totally hypothetical right now of course, and maybe its just my NJ Napolitan upbringing talking (did I say hypothetically? If not, I do now), but if this Degen guy were to just disappear, who'd miss him? I mean, that would be like what would happen in a Martin Scorsese film, right?

I'm pretty sure it's illegal to do that...

Also, I'm pretty sure that guy could bring a civil suit against deegan or whatever his name is if the IRS comes after him and he has to defend himself and proves himself innocent.

I was wondering about this, but I'm not sure. What would the suit be for? Harrasment, if he could prove that there was no basis for the letter and this guy was just trying to start shit for him? Defamation of character (libel, I guess), if this guy posted copies of his letter online to try to make him look bad?

Justified or not, I can't think tipping off the IRS (or the police, for that matter) if you have reason to believe a person is committing a crime (in this case, tax evasion) could be illegal, unless you did so on a whim, and had no legit reason for it. In other words, if this guy had bragged about how much money he makes tax free, etc, that would be one thing... but if never said anything along those lines, it seems as if the other guy is just trying to start trouble for no good reason.

I'd be interested to see what RD thinks.

Although the IRS might not have a direct law relating to such instances, I would think federal mail or wire fraud statutes could be applied if they so choose. Of course, the IRS might not even care and just throw the letter out.

Also, if the complaint is way off base and causes economic harm to beanie...I'm sure you could claim some sort of tortious interference or something.

But, I am cobbling this together from a conversation with a lawyer type person and my extensive knowledge resulting from my Intro to Business Law class. So...who knows.

For a libel / defamation claim the plaintiff has to prove that the defendant made a false written statement, published that statement, knew it was false all along and it caused damage to the plaintiff. The next-to-last part, knowing it was false, is the hardest to prove. The defendant is always going to take the position that he thought the statement he published about the plaintiff was true.

I'm sure there's probably some federal law that prohibits making false statements to the IRS, but again, you'd have to prove that the person making the statements knew they were false.