Vayo Drops Lawsuit Against PokerStars, PokerStars States Vayo Forged Evidence
2016 WSOP runner-up and well-known online poker player Gordon Vayo has dropped his lawsuit against PokerStars parent company Rational Entertainment Enterprises Limited (REEL) after the latter discovered some of the evidence was doctored.
Upon being confronted with the discovery of forged evidence, Vayo's representation quit. In return, REEL has filed a countersuit seeking $280,000 from Vayo for legal fees and court costs.
Initial Lawsuit Vayo vs. REEL
Back in May of this year, Gordon Vayo filed a lawsuit against REEL with the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. The lawsuit was featured on Forbes.com.
In the complaint, Vayo attested to winning the 2017 SCOOP #1-H $1,050 NLHE event for $692,000 but that his prize was withheld by PokerStars.
The online poker room declared that Vayo played the event from within the United States via the use of a VPN, a breach of the Terms of Service of the website.
In the article we published on the matter on May 8th, 2018, we quoted Vayo's claim of having submitted uncontroverted evidence that attested to him being in Canada for the full duration of the SCOOP.
REEL Says Vayo Doctored Evidence
A new court filing in the case, as discovered by and reported on by Haley Hintze for Flushdraw.net and VegasSlotsOnline, states that REEL confronted Vayo with the discovery that some of the evidence Vayo had supplied, was doctored.
According to the formal letter, PokerStars/REEL had been in direct contact with the forger Vayo hired to doctor his evidence. The forger shared the original documents with REEL, showing the changes made to indicate ATM transactions had been made with banks in California, and not with a bank in Ottawa, Canada. Using the wrong surcharge amounts and wrong exchange rates between USD and CAD were just some of the additional examples laid out by REEL's representation.
Upon being confronted by REEL with their discovery of the forgery on October 14th, Vayo filed a notice that he was voluntarily dropping his claims against REEL. Two weeks later, Gordon's lawyer Gregory A. Fayer of Los Angeles-based Fayer Gibson LLP resigned. On October 25, William A. Bowen of a Californian based law firm took over Vayo's representation.
REEL's attorneys made four inquiries, the last on November 5, to Vayo's new representation, which went unanswered.
November 12 Motion
The exact turn of events wasn't detailed in the October filings but came to light when REEL filed a motion on November 12 seeking $280,000 from Vayo for legal expenses and court costs. An excerpt of the filing, as quoted by VegasSlotsOnline, details the series of events:
“[]REEL received a ‘tip’ from a third party that Vayo’s bank and internet records were altered by a document forger Vayo hired (the “Forger”), specifically in order to create the false impression that Vayo was in Canada during the SCOOP Tournament so he could fraudulently demand payment from REEL. Stern []. As described below, REEL’s further investigation confirmed this to be the case, and REEL immediately confronted Vayo about it, on a Friday evening. [] Vayo’s counsel claimed that he was not aware of any forgery (i.e., he had just passed along the documents Vayo had provided to him), that he would ask Vayo about them, and that he was concerned about speaking further because—if the documents were in fact forgeries—the crime-fraud exception could apply. [] About 48 hours later, on Sunday evening, Vayo filed a notice of voluntary dismissal of all of his claims [] and his counsel subsequently withdrew. … REEL made repeated efforts to meet and confer with Vayo’s new counsel to avoid the need for this motion, including by sending a detailed letter explaining Vayo’s forgery. []. Vayo ignored these meet and confer requests, and never denied the forgery. …
“The third party who informed REEL of Vayo’s forgery said that he (the third party) had spoken to the Forger. … The Forger told the third party that Vayo contacted the Forger for assistance creating a virtual private network (‘VPN’) for Vayo to use while he was playing on REEL’s site in California to create the false appearance that he was in Canada. [] The Forger also provided the third party with the original statements from First Republic Bank and Bell Canada that Vayo had sent to the Forger to doctor so that they would demonstrate (falsely) that Vayo was in Canada during the SCOOP tournament. Importantly, the third party knew and volunteered that Vayo’s forged docume[/I]nts purported to be from Bell Canada and First Republic Bank, information that was not public at the time or provided to the third party by REEL.”
We have reached out to PokerStars and Vayo with a request for comment.
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