Home / Poker News April 2015 / Christian Lusardi of Borgata Cheating Fame Gets 5 Years in Prison
Christian Lusardi of Borgata Cheating Fame Gets 5 Years in Prison
Posted by: Randy Williams - Wed, 2015-04-08 01:10
Cheating in a major live poker event by introducing counterfeit chips into the game may not seem like much of crime to someone morally bankrupt-enough to even consider something like that, but Christian Lusardi, the infamous player who went down just that road, ruining the 2014 Borgata Winter Poker Open's $2 Million Guarantee, found out the hard way that such crime does not pay: the 43-year-old was sentenced to 60 months in jail and three years of supervision following his release on March 30. In addition to all that, he was ordered to pay restitution well in excess of $1.1 million, although granted, the sentence may not even have been linked to his counterfeit chip antics.
The legal process which resulted in the above said sentence found him guilty of two counts of Criminal information. He was charged with copyright infringement (on account of the fake DVDs he'd been found to possess) and he was found to have violated 18 USC sections 2319 (b, 1 and 2) and 17 USC sections 506 (a, 1 and A)
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Lusardi pleaded guilty to both counts, which was sort of surprising, considering the fact that he could've made a federal plea, by negotiating the dismissal of state charges.
One has to bear in mind that Lusardi didn't exactly have a spotless record before his Borgata Winter Poker Open fiasco either: he had been found in possession of 35,500 counterfeit DVDs mailed to him from China, so his copyright-infringement charges were indeed related to that issue. In fact, not much was mentioned of his counterfeit chip attempt during the sentencing, but poker fans are probably glad nonetheless that he got what he - at the end of the day - did indeed deserve.
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