The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has announced that George Janssen, the Michigan poker player who claimed to have been kidnapped and held hostage for over a month in late 2023 before escaping, has been charged with defrauding a financial institution.
Janssen, a four-time WSOP Circuit ring winner, was found walking along a rural road in the 'thumb' region of Michigan, north of Detroit, with his hands zip-tied in front of him. When found, shortly before Christmas, he told officers that he had been held in a basement in northern Ohio after being extorted by a person or persons for over a month before he escaped.
The case was quickly transferred to the FBI, with Janssen's kidnapping tale appearing to many outsiders to be suspect as more details emerged. In a criminal complaint filed on Tuesday, the FBI revealed that it had been contacted by a Michigan bank regarding nearly $1.35 million in bad checks written by Janssen to a credit union used as a liquidity channel for Janssen's car dealership in Bay City, Michigan.
'Fictitious vehicles' provided as loan collateral
Three months before his disappearance, State of Michigan auditors discovered that Janssen had used "fictitious" and non-existent vehicles as collateral for loans he had received from two banks or credit unions. Janssen admitted to floating loans, and he was barred from selling vehicles for five years in October of 2023.
In the weeks surrounding the loss of his car-sales license, Janssen withdrew over $116,000, mostly cash from ATMs, from accounts in his or the dealership's name from two credit unions and a bank, just preceding his disappearance on November 13, 2023.
Claimed extortion by 'Hispanic gang or cartel'
The money, according to Janssen, went to others who were extorting him. Janssen told his family and at least one friend that he had been "extorted by a Hispanic gang or cartel for the previous two years, from approximately October 2021 to November 2023," according to the FBI's complaint.
Janssen claimed after his alleged kidnapping ordeal that he had been accosted at gunpoint by a man who demanded $2 million or Janssen's family would be harmed, and Janssen also claimed he had made numerous $25,000 cash payments via a burner phone and blind drops of the money.
While he was missing, the FBI was informed of other loans taken out on behalf of Janssen by associates, of which almost $2 million more remained as outstanding debt. That roughly matched the amount he claimed he was being extorted for.
Janssen's son aware of loan scheme
Meanwhile, in connection to the scheme with the fictitious cars, Janssen's son, Connor, admitted that he was aware that his father "was taking false loans and moving money with checks from bank to bank." The junior Janssen acknowledged filing paperwork almost on a daily basis at times that allegedly supported his father's check-kiting schemes. He also told investigators he thought the vehicles used as collateral were real but admitted never seeing titles for the cars or the cars themselves.
In the wake of George Janssen's disappearance, several other people contacted law enforcement, claiming that they had also been defrauded. Ultimately, investigators determined that Janssen had allegedly been involved in nearly $4 million in fraudulent vehicle loans dating all the way back to 2016. Those loans came from at least 20 different financial institutions and amounted to roughly $3.9 million in total, with roughly half of that debt still outstanding. According to the FBI, Janssen owes roughly $3.2 million from the various intermingled schemes.
Feature image courtesy of MSPTPoker.com.
