http://www.laweekly.com/news/josh-ma...-fraud-2174280

"Because, as it turns out, Macciello was never a real contender for the team. He is, instead, a fraud. Despite what he's told reporter after reporter, and despite what those journalists have dutifully repeated, he does not have billions of dollars. He does not have rights to any gold mines. He is, instead, a convicted drug dealer and a huckster who has used his talents to persuade many people — not just journalists — to place their confidence in him. In his wake he has left a string of abandoned projects and broken promises.

The Dodger play is his boldest stunt so far. And, judged strictly as a bid for attention, it was a fantastic success. Reporters and fans ate up the tale of the regular guy who wanted to buy the team. Never mind the gaping holes in that narrative: At the end of the day, it was a great story.

He's the biggest fish on latb, who cares where he got his money from?

This story sounds eerily similar to Bruce McNall -- who actually made it work with the LA Kings before being found out and going to prison.

Degen

Dang another poker player who's a fraud and scammer ??? When will it end???

After their initial report, Mason and Ireland did a follow-up interview with Ramona Shelburne, an ESPN reporter who spent five weeks checking into Macciello's background. The verdict: He's the real deal.

"At the end of the day, it's just a great story," Shelburne told them. "This guy, I honestly think, is just a guy who came into a lot of money and thinks it might be cool [to own the team]. There's something endearing about that."

[ ] five weeks

Has this guy's name come up in recent days? This is a five-year-old article, but I also recall it getting posted a couple of years ago.

All this dude does is post bible verses on Twitter. Christian morality wins again

They're not going to let facts get in the way of a good story.

I remember reading it few months back when he won the biggest pot on LATB and someone wrote all about the article in the YouTube comments but also remember reading it previous to this. Not sure why its now just being brought up again, I haven't recently watched every LATB streams but haven't seen him on the ones I have seen.

SHOCKED AND APPAULED that there's somebody like this in poker...gotta be the first time this has happened...

I was thinking along the same lines, but with Josh Spano and the Islanders. They made a 30 for 30 on ESPN about him.

Maybe this "profession" of his is more common than I'd like to believe. It seems he creates small LLCs, pretends to have millions of dollars and huge connections, and then uses his charisma to bait investors for various projects that seemingly have never worked out yet, but have seemingly allowed him to profit sizably-at least to the extent of being able to pay 10K a month for his Studio City mansion.

There aren't any fraud charges against him it appears however.

Having 3,000 Vicodin Pills in his car to which he never refuted association with is equally awful. Maybe the Heroin was a friends' but he doesn't deny the prescription drug trafficking.

What great evidence of how those who associate with Poker are the lowest of the low, even those who seem friendly and normal. Or conversely how a lifetime of Poker can condition one into becoming a predatory, manipulative person off the felt as well.

He raised $850,000 for Amici Enterprises in Nov 2016. I believe he gambled away that money by playing bacarrat and on live at the bike and that is why he has been absent on the show the past few weeks.

It was kind of odd that a supposed billionaire was going on monkey tilt after losing some hands. It would make more sense if he wasn't a billionaire and was gambling away investor money. Which one do you think it is?

He got it from the dude that invested $850,000 in Amici Enterprises. Biggest joke company I have ever seen. You should see the "technology" on his YouTube videos. Never laughed so hard.

I don't know why a five-year-old magazine article is all of a sudden big news on this forum. This is the second time in the last few months that this old news has been brought here as if it is some new headline scandal. Here's the last time it was discussed here.

I've never seen a sketchier product than that Avici/Amici enterprises website http://amicienterprise.com/. The website looks incredibly amateurish. Literally Snakeoil in a box it appears. With sciency buzzwords such as "carbon footprint" the rhyming "Cool, clean, conditioned power" and "Peak Demand" ready to just fool the trust-fund baby investors of LA.

Are there videos of him being visibly tilted to share?

I'm sorry but this is a public issue and deserves to be brought back up again because it sheds light on how poker and gambling addiction go hand in hand as well as how fake most people at the table really are.

wtf does this box even do? its from amici's website. lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_KeEfpFkKU

I think it scams investors out of their money?

I remember coming across the Amici Enterprises website a few months ago, after I had read that article, and I thought the exact same thing.

I agree with the first part, but this doesn't do much in the way of proving that most people one might encounter at a poker table are "fake."

Their website claims their box reduces power consumption AND CO2 emissions by 20-40%.

Yet on Maccielo's LinkedIn page he refers to the company as a "sales and marketing organization."

WTF how did they get real companies to buy it? There are a bunch of big companies (like NORAD) listed as customers in one of their promo videos. One of the mirror companies (Perfect Power Performance) lists the U.S. Air Force as a customer.

This Reddit thread has a good discussion about the Amici box:
https://www.reddit.com/r/ElectricalE..._mpts_maximum/

I wouldn't be surprised if the four guys listed as the management team of Amici don't exist and/or don't have anything to do with the company. The CFO appears to be a self-help coach in Colorado and makes no mention of working for Amici.

I wasn't familiar with Live at the Bike years ago, Josh or this story, so thanks. Good read. Yeah not really shocking to see another dbag in the poker world though.

i didn't realize gambling at the casino means your past is on trial

This is NVG and the G stands for gossip. How's the weather up there?