Businessman and high stakes poker player, Brandon Steven, is currently under investigation by the FBI.
Brandon Steven is the no.1 ranked poker player in Kansas according to hendonmob.com and has over $3.1m in live tourney earnings, including two deep runs in the WSOP Main Event where he narrowly missed out on the final table in 2010 when he finished 10th. He has also final tabled a WPT Main Event and has won an Aria High Roller tournament. Steven just missed out on a huge payday last year when he bubbled the €1m buy-in Big One for One Drop tourney in Monaco.
Steven, who has made his fortune though the ownership of several motor dealerships has confirmed that the FBI have been investigating his activities and says that it is due to his poker exploits as well as his part in a recent failed attempt to open a casino in Kansas.
It would appear that calls made by Steven were intercepted by the Feds in 2015 by wiretap, and that Steven was notified by a letter from Assistant US Attorney Aaron L. Smith on February 1st which detailed the intercepted call(s) but also clarified that, “This notice does not mean that you are being charged in court with anything. This is simply a notice which the law requires we send to you. It only means that you, or someone using a telephone subscribed to you, were intercepted talking with a person using the telephone listed above,”
The news came to light when a businessman told the Witchita Eagle newspaper that he had received a letter from the Department of Justice advising him that he was the subject of a telephone conversation with Steven recorded on a wiretap.
Although the US Attorney’s office haven’t filed any charges, the Mayor told a local radio reporter that “federal charges could come in the next couple of weeks.”
Steven was part of an 18 strong group of Witchita investors who wanted to build the “Castle Rock” casino in Kansas but the application was denied and instead the go ahead was given to one of the other two groups vying to build Kansas fourth and final casino. Since the denial Steven has begun proceedings to sue the decision makers on the basis that,“All of the consultants had agreed that Castle Rock casino would be the biggest draw. And the board was legally obligated to choose the ‘contract (that) best maximizes revenue, encourages tourism and otherwise serves the interests of the people of Kansas’.”
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