BRITISH MAN CHARGED WITH STEALING $12 MILLION IN POKER CHIPS


Posted 2/1/11: Acquired and sold the poker chips over the internet
 
More details have emerged in the case against Ashley Mitchell(29) the IT expert who admitted to hacking into an online casino site and stealing 400 billion poker chips.
 
The UK publication Daily Mail reports that the Englishman posing as an administrator hacked into American poker company the Zynga Corporation and siphoned off 400 billion chips valued at over $12 million and transferred the electronic chips into fake Facebook accounts before selling them at reduced prices online.
 
Mitchell ran a successful Facebook application Gambino Poker and was taking home a "six-figure salary" at the time he was caught.
 
After the Zynga Corporation realised the chips had gone missing, they notified police authorities who tracked his movements online.  He made GBP 50 000 from the scam despite the worth of the chips running into millions.
 
Exeter Crown Court Judge Phillip Wassall remanded Mitchell to custody and said: ‘It is inevitable you are going to prison. The question is how long for.
 
"The considerable amounts involved and the expertise it took for this crime to happen as well as the fact that you did it while already subject to a suspended sentence for the same offence lead me to this conclusion.
 
"I believe that if you were on bail you would do it again, so you will be remanded to custody."
 
Mitchell was previously given a suspended prison sentence for hacking into Torbay Council's system – where he was working at the time – and paying himself benefits he was not entitled to.  He was given a 40 week suspended prison sentence.
 
Sentencing is due to take place in March 2011.