Poker Pro George Janssen Wins Tournament Amid Bizarre Fraud, Kidnapping Case
Posted on: October 9, 2025, 07:04h.
Last updated on: October 9, 2025, 07:04h.
- Poker champ wins Michigan tournament while awaiting fraud sentencing
- Janssen’s alleged kidnapping adds intrigue to financial crime saga
- Prosecutors say $3.9M fraud scheme funded auto-loan deception
George Janssen, the poker player at the center of a bizarre kidnap claim who is currently awaiting sentencing for fraud, won a tournament in his native Michigan Wednesday.
Janssen outlasted 311 other entrants in a $400 buy-in Ultimate Stack no-limit hold’em event, at Firekeepers Casino in Battle Creek for $18,556, as first reported by PokerNews.com.
The four-time World Series of Poker Circuit ring winner is slated to be sentenced for felony financial institution fraud in December. Federal prosecutors say he conducted a scheme to defraud credit unions through fraudulent auto-loan applications between 2016 and 2023.
Reported Missing
Janssen was reported missing by family members in November 2023 after his car was found abandoned with $50 bills strewn on the floor.
On December 16 that year, he was found zip-tied and bloodied at the side of a rural road near his hometown of Bad Axe, Mich.
He claimed he had been kidnapped and held captive by a “Hispanic extortion gang” in an Ohio basement for 33 days. He told the passer-by he flagged down that he managed to escape his captors.
Janssen was arrested in February this year. Prosecutors accuse him of scamming at least 20 financial institutions out of more than $3.9 million before his disappearance, about $1.9 million of which is still outstanding.
Court filings show that Janssen agreed to plead guilty to one count of financial institution fraud in relation to the scheme in August 2025.
Financial Pressure
Prosecutors say financial pressure was mounting on Janssen in the weeks leading up to his disappearance. They claim he used bogus paperwork to “float” loans – the practice of taking out multiple loans using the same asset as collateral, in this case, a vehicle at his car dealership.
Just two weeks before he vanished, Michigan officials stripped him of his car-dealer license for five years, citing falsified paperwork.
Prior to the alleged kidnapping, Janssen confided to a friend that he had been extorted and threatened for roughly two years by a criminal gang, according to a November 2023 missing persons report.
He said the ordeal began when a masked man put a gun to his head in a Detroit casino parking garage and demanded $2 million — money he claimed he didn’t have.
Janssen reportedly told the friend that his extortionists later gave him a burner phone for ongoing contact and threatened his family if he failed to pay. He said he was instructed to deliver cash in boxes left at predetermined drop-off points.
Cryptic Letter
While he was reportedly being held captive, a family member received a handwritten letter from Janssen.
The message mentioned several real acquaintances but also included six invented relatives — Kirby, Iggy, Daisey, Noah, Anthony, and Parker. Their initials formed an acrostic that spelled “KIDNAP.”
Prosecutors claim Janssen concocted the kidnap story in a desperate bid to cover mounting debts and conceal years of financial misconduct.
He faces up to 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine, though his guilty plea and lack of prior convictions could reduce his sentence to fewer than ten years, according to federal guidelines.
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