The FBI is investing after a four-time World Series of Poker Circuit winner and recent Mid-Stakes Poker Tour champion was found zip-tied and injured on the side of a road more than a month after his family reported him missing.
George Janssen, the current MSPT Venetian champ, told police he was kidnapped by two or three men who held him captive in a basement in a house somewhere in Toledo for 35 days before dumping him on a rural road near his home of Bad Axe, Mich.
According to Michigan’s ABC News 12, Janssen was found bound by zip ties and his face bloodied on Dec. 16. He told police the men had extorted him.
Janssen’s family reported the Michigan online poker pro was missing on Nov. 13, two months after he won the MSPT’s $1,600 main event at the Venetian for $82,823. His four WSOP Circuit rings all came online — most recently in May — playing as “georgejanssen” in Michigan.
He also won $79,861 for finishing third in MSPT’s main event at JACKS casino in Cleveland in September.
According to ABC 12, Huron County Sheriff Kelly Hanson told the station that Janssen claims he was dropped after he took the kidnappers to a place where he hid some of his money.
“From what we gathered, he was being brought up here to recover some money that was hidden to give to these two assailants,” Hanson told ABC 12
A family member said Janssen told them he’s been the target of extortion for the past two years.
All reports from the sheriff’s department, the Bad Axe Police, and the Monroe County Sheriff’s Department have been turned over to the FBI.
The FBI will not confirm or deny any investigation that it is working on.
