This is beyond false and makes me think you have some connection possibly in this. It sounds very odd to say this.

The FBI does not have dollar amounts for who they prosecute. They prosecute people all of the time for crimes involving no money, and no victims.

This being an international scam is going to get their attention. They love slam dunk cases brought to them with all details so they can further their careers. It's a competitive agency.

Damn this really sucks, doesn't seem like there will be any good news in the next few days if they even come out and address the problems. Hopefully OP at least saved some people from being scammed.

Full disclosure,

ClickItBak and I are friends. In fact, I came to him with this story last week, as we are former Co-Workers and know the owners of PPC personally. There was a lot that needed to be said, however, people asked me not to speak upon things for a bit. They were made promises upon promises, and believed they would be honored via the PPC. ClickItBak was able to say things without blowing the case, and also uncover things we had no clue about. It seemed impossible to be true at the beginning, that these men who we thought were honest, upstanding, good people running a Poker Tour, were potential thieves.

My name is Richard Herbert, and I am a former Tournament Director at Maryland Live! Casino.

During my tenure at Maryland Live! I had many interactions with Sandy, and a few with Bryan. As stated above, everything seemed on the up and up. You would be hard pressed to find anyone to say a bad word about them, or, their product. Until recently.

I resigned from my position at Live in late August. In fact, the last event that I ran was a PPC event. That very event was the event that Stephen Deutsch won to secure his seat in Aruba. I recently returned to Live to participate in their $400 $75k GTD as part of their Champion of Champions event NOVEMBER 30 – DECEMBER 4. I have lived in Maryland most of my life, as well as being part of the Poker community in some form for over 13 years. People trust me with things, come to me when they have issues, or just want to talk. During my time playing the Champions of Champions Main Event, myself, as well as others in the local community, were approached by no less than Five different individuals asking us questions about the PPC. One of those individuals actually was a part of the Champions of Champions event. Their questions all had the same context.

"Were you paid for travel/hotel expenses yet? Does it normally take this long?"

Of course this raised some red flags. However, they just had a Main Event, were on the road no more than a few weeks later, and everything seemed on the up and up. Mind you that when you win a package, the PPC states that all travel/hotel expenses will be paid upon arrival in Aruba, in cash. I know of one individual who borrowed money to go to Aruba, in good faith, because they had a package payment coming their way once they landed. Or, so they thought.

Regarding the Champions of Champions event held at Live, I know individuals have not been accommodated for their travel/hotel costs for this event.

On day two of the $75k GTD, I approached their blogger (Mark Hoke) and asked why he drew the short straw. He looked at me confused, and asked what I was talking about. I responded "Well, Bryan and Sandy are headed to the Ravens/Dolphins game, looks like you are here running the whole show! Who's cheerio's did you piss in buddy?" Mark slammed both fists on the table and yelled out a few foul words, followed by the statement, "Those mother****ers are dodging me, goddamn them! I haven't been paid since before Aruba! My rent is due, my electricity is about to be cut off in Vegas, and they're just jerking around having a good goddamn time with my money!" (this is about as close as I remember it. Maybe the curse words are out of order, but you get the point)

Whoa.
Clearly I hit a nerve, without trying to. Mind you, this is after having five different individuals this weekend mention they haven't been paid travel/hotel costs that they are owed, as well as Champions of Champions players not being paid either.

This was Sunday, and the heads of the PPC, at their event titled Champions of Champions, are nowhere to be found. Infact, the day before, they were there only for the shuffle up and deal, before leaving. BY THEIR OWN EMPLOYEE'S WORD, THEY WERE DUCKING HIM!

Once the event was over, a few of us started to put some things together.

5 people from Maryland Live alone were still owed from an event taking place weeks before, when they were supposed to be paid upon landing.

Champions of Champions SnG participants not being paid as well.

Their own coverage reporter being owed for months, and affecting his ability to pay his bills.

Followed by the bombshell that the PPC Main Event Champion, Stephen, only receiving $10,000 of his $133k+ victory. Furthermore, no one above 7th place was paid that weekend!

Yeah, that came out that weekend as well.

Unfortunately I can not discuss much about this gentleman, per his request. However, it is public knowledge at this time, that he has been massively shorted.

The reasons given for travel costs not being paid so far range from:

"Oh, we have you marked as paid. Are you sure you didn't receive it? We will have to check our records, why don't you do the same and get back to us."

"We didn't bring a checkbook, or any cash. We will get it to you as soon as we get back to the States"

"We are having a hard time moving the money from Aruba to the USA. Money will arrive by December 4th at the latest"

Then, when December 4th comes and goes, it changes to

"You will have it by the following week"

Sadly, this time frame elapses with no payment. To this day, none of the five individuals I personally know have been made whole. If I can name five people who came to myself/friends in one weekend, from one casino, I wonder how many more are actually out there? By the PPC's own admission, they ran 30 stops last year!

Since this, it has also been uncovered that AFTER the PPC Main in Aruba, Sandy/Bryan were offering 50% stake in their company. On top of that, they own less than 60% of the company that they are trying to sell and act like they own 100% of it! The FB post ITT is what many people were sent. I know of two people who received such a message. They quite simply were trying to raise funds to pay people.

They also offered to run two FREE events in Florida at the end of December to try to raise capital, as well as offering the same deal to Maryland Live.

I can also confirm that the Isle, as well as Maryland Live, have severed ties with this company. Furthermore, Ronnie Bardah, a "featured pro" on every one of their posters, has severed ties with the PPC.

Look, all I want is everyone to be made whole. We, as a community, have to take action when we see something wrong. Outing this is the only recourse we as a community have. We have to stop people from being scammed. People who make a lot more money than I do will battle this out in court, however, until then the PPC MUST be stopped. Even if they are made whole, they can not be trusted again.

I guess the real red flag should have been years ago in Florida, when these same individuals ran a small tour, similar to this yet in bar leagues, that folded. However, we were all duped. Sandy/Bryan were super nice, seemed sincere, and offered a product we liked. Yet, most con men also carry the same character traits.

This post has been made after a long poker session, so if some of it is repeated, I apologize. Any questions about any of this I can answer.

Thanks ClickItBak for all your help. You uncovered more than I had when I presented this. Because of you, many people were able to see this and share their experiences. Hopefully no one else gets scammed, hopefully everyone is made whole. Thought I sincerely doubt there is any money to be paid.

-Rich

Intertops / Juicy Stakes ran satellites for exactly one PPC event.

FYP

Given the history of these sites, I would guess that they are probably victims here too.

Time to add some SEO juice to this mess. Bryan Oulton & Sandy Swartzbaugh are the listed owners of the PPC Poker Tour.

Sandy Swartzbaugh deleted his twitter account within the last eight hours...






I'll report this post to see if mods think it's worthwhile to add Bryan Oulton & Sandy Swartzbaugh's names to the thread title.

PP is very likely talking about the Alfred Jack Walls UCARE scam that was uncovered on 2+2.

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/29...fs-op-1132960/

Pretty much all details were uncovered for a slam dunk case, and I'm pretty sure it was reported to the FBI by numerous people including PP. Other than getting the "charity" shut down, nothing happened.

So you have a very bad read on PP.

Some photos of the PPC Poker Tour owners.

Sandy Swartzbaugh:



Bryan Oulton



Sandy Swartzbaugh, (unpaid Aruba ME winner?), Bryan Oulton:



Sandy Swartzbaugh:



Bryan Oulton:



Sandy Swartzbaugh, Bryan Outlon:


--

Edit: "You are blocked from following @BryanOulton and viewing @BryanOulton's Tweets."

It's sad to see these poker tours turn into scams. PPC , ininja both thought to be good things turned out really bad

Admo, yes that is Stephen. On their FB page you can see more pics from the event.

I am one of the tour pros, Chris 'Fox' Wallace. I had no idea about any of this until yesterday when someone sent me a link to the thread. I have also not been paid money that was owed since September, but had no idea that it was a big problem until now when I realize that I am clearly never going to see that money.

I'm pretty tired of working for poker tours and getting screwed. The poker world seems to be short of honest business people these days.

I can confirm that Sandy has seen this thread. I texted him and got back a short message that said more information would be available today. Then he stopped answering any messages.

I was run through the same bull****, told that a check would be sent, then told that a check had been sent and must be lost, then told to wait until after an event was wrapped up and they were back in the office.

These guys have families and the business was viable. What the hell makes someone throw their lives away, go to jail, and ruin their reputation forever, when they could just run a solid business and make money? Baffling.

Madison Poker Community statement regarding The PPC Tour and the 2016 Aruba World Championship

Monday, November 7th should have been a fantastic day for all those involved with 2016 PPC Aruba World Championship Final Table. Unfortunately it turns out to be a day that the Final 7 players of the tournament will never forget.

As of today, Friday, December 23rd, none of the Final 7 players have received more than $10,000 of their earnings from the PPC Poker Tour, including one player who has not received any funds whatsoever and was told that the PPC Poker Tour didn’t have the funds to pay them at the time.

The Top 6 finishers all received $10,000 in Aruba and were told to sign a paper that they received the $10K and to list their email. The PPC Poker Tour said they would immediately send out an email to get further information in order to send the remaining amount. The PPC failed to make contact with at least one of the Final 7 and only after a player reached out to them regarding the lack of communication was there a response.

On November 14th (7 days after the event), players were notified of how much was owed to them and that the PPC would be wiring their remaining winnings. They were then told that the process to have the money wired from Aruba takes 15-20 business days due to Aruba government and regulations and that their money would be sent out as soon as possible. At this point the players were asked for Bank & Wire information.

On December 7th (21 business days after the event, 30 days after the event), the PPC reached out to players letting them know that they were on pace to having all payments completed by the next week and as soon as the money was wired to the PPC account, they would then wire the money to players’ accounts.

After waiting another week, another attempt to reach out to the PPC was made on December 13th (25 business days after the event, 36 days after the event) which resulted in being informed that the PPC hoped to have everything completed this week.

On Friday, December 16th (28 business days after the event, 39 days after the event), the PPC notified at least one player that they were looking to have their payout completed next week AND if there was an additional delay that they would send a partial payment before the holidays! They further implied that these delays were beyond their control and had been frustrating for them as well.

The morning of December 16th is when I became involved.

My name is Michael Hanson and I am the Founder and Director of the Madison Poker Community, a group of over 1000 members. Our group is dedicated to creating a “Player Friendly” environment in poker tournaments and cash games in the Madison Area specifically and anywhere where MPC members play. I have helped to promote PPC Events in the past including the last two years of the Aruba Championship. I did not receive any compensation from the PPC for my efforts. I promoted these events for my players, because I thought they were worthwhile events.

From the beginning I was hopeful that although the PPC may have been involved in some poor business practices, they would correct the situation that they had put their players in and then resolve any poor business practices another way.

I contacted Bryan Oulton and Sandy Swartzbaugh, the owners of the PPC, with the hope of being an intermediary and to facilitate payment. I was overly confident that the players had absolutely nothing to worry about regarding payment and told them as much.

On Monday, December 19th a post appeared on 2+2 regarding the situation and I approached it with the same positive beliefs that I had conveyed prior to the weekend. However, when I was contacted by Sandy regarding my posts on 2+2, combined with the fact that they had yet to contact the players who were due payment, I knew something was not right. I still held out hope that silence, for the most part, would be the best course of action in order to see any sort of payment for the players.

Over the course of the last four days, there have been numerous promises of at the very least contacting the players involved the next day, only to see each day come and go with yet another promise about tomorrow.

At least one of the players gave the PPC an ultimatum of payment due by 5:00pm central time yesterday.

After the 5 PM deadline passed, I reached out to contact Bryan and Sandy one last time and I was asked to withhold my statement so they could have one last effort to resolve the situation. I was aware at the time the players had already acquired legal counsel. I was also aware that at this point it was probably too late. There was a concern made by others that my silence may lead other possible “investors” to get fleeced as a means of taking care of the current payout shortages.

However, the last piece of the puzzle is that a person, Rick Graves from North Carolina, claiming to be a lawyer but NOT a representative of the PPC, was contacting the players in hopes of reaching a settlement. He stated that he was considering buying out Bryan and Sandy, but then letting them continue to run the tour. In exchange of payments made to the Final 7 over the course of an undetermined amount of time, he was asking that the players sign a non-disclosure agreement regarding the settlement. Rick Graves has since been confirmed by Bryan Oulton to be the corporate attorney for the PPC and that he, again according to Bryan, “tried to come to a solution today [Thursday]”.

Now it is noon on Friday, December 23rd and my deadline for them to reach a conclusion has passed.

It is with deep regret that the Madison Poker Community, including former PPC Tour Pro Mark Kroon, former PPC Tour Pro Ronnie Bardah, and former PPC Tour Pro Chris “Fox” Wallace, will no longer support the PPC Poker Tour due to the fact that $357,100 remains unpaid to the Final 7 players for its 2016 PPC Aruba World Championship Event. We further encourage every single one of the 1,018 members of the MPC, as well as card players everywhere, to no longer support them as well.

Michael Hanson
Founder/Director
Madison Poker Community
madisonpokercommunity@gmail.com

You are so cute and precious. You must be right because you thought about it. Go ahead and report it and let us know how it goes. Actually prove me wrong instead of making BS accusations.

It is exactly what an agent from the LV office told me when I tried to report a multi-state charity scam.

This madison poker guy seems to be awfully full of himself.

sometimes I think that too... but honestly I was just trying to make the post come across as professional because I posted it to many various sites, including the pages of the next few PPC Tour Stops

Great contribution to this thread, how long did it take you to come up with it? Also, have you checked the mirror lately?

Slightly less time than it would have taken me to post details of a likely scam, instead of deciding that keeping silent was somehow a good plan.

If I were a scammed player, first thing I would do is contact the Gaming Commission in the state where you won your package.

Maybe then call the FBI (mostly for fun)

Greed.

The thing is it was actually fun. I really enjoyed myself in Aruba. They did have a viable product. I had planned to go back next year and probably to future dates as well.

I am only going to be screwed out of about $3300, but I do plan on contacting my local Gaming Commission.

My short article on this story is now up (minus the recent Madison stuff which appeared too late). I'm not allowed to link it, but if you want to read it I'm sure you'll be able to find it.

Hope it helps to spread the word to potential players and sponsors, and thanks to 2+2 guys for the information.

Andrew Burnett

This is how I felt too.
Really upsetting and disappointing that this happened. Hope they get it together and pay everyone what they are owed. As Rich has pointed out Maryland Live will no longer be associated with PPC in any way.

[QUOTE=Tim Brice;51417939
The thing is it was actually fun. I really enjoyed myself in Aruba. They did have a viable product. I had planned to go back next year and probably to future dates as well.[/QUOTE]

This last year was my 2nd in Aruba and we were already planning our trip back for year 3. I'm super disappointed that this has happened.

On a positive note, if you had to plan a poker vacation in November of next year, where would you plan on going?

Atleast it's americas right? Should be easier to prosecute ? At least find where they live and unlike the lock ordeal, they shouldn't be able to hide too well.
Unfortunate these people run games. Wonder what happened?

Did they just blatantly take the pool money in hopes no one would know?

Looks like someone took the prize pool the question is who Bryan, Sandy or someone else or all took a piece.