Details Emerge in Second Video-Piracy Seizure Case Involving Oregon Poker Player Talon White
Newport, Oregon “poker pro” Talon White has again been targeted by United States prosecutors who continue to unravel the workings of a major video-piracy operation hosted on various sites such as NoobRoom, Superchillin, Sit2Play, and Movietv.to that operated in turns from 2013 until seized by federal agents last year. A home owed by White in Newport, Oregon, was targeted in a seizure effort last November, while a second case filed earlier this month has targeted nearly four million dollars in bank-account balances and cryptocurrency holdings controlled by White and linked directly to the copyright-violating streaming services he allegedly operated.
White’s name was withheld in initial reports, including here at Flushdraw, due to his not being arrested in connection with the video-piracy operations. However, his name has now been made public in several other published reports. White, 28, had already filed as a claimant in the matter involving his $336,000 Newport, OR home, which sits a few short block inland and has prominent views of the Pacific Ocean. (This writer has spent a couple of weeks in Newport and the surrounding coastal area and is familiar with the area.)
Talon White (Source: WSOP.com)
White, 28, was described by his Texas-based attorney Rain Minns to Oregon’s KOIN-TV as being a professional poker player. White does have some tournament results, including a final-two-tables effort in Event #9 of the 2018 WSOP, $10,000 Omaha Hi-Lo 8-or-Better Championship, where he cashed for $20,948, the second-largest recorded cash of his live-poker career.
However, White (pictured at right) has barely topped $100,000 in recorded career live-event tournament winnings. This implies that if he is a true poker professional, he has earned much more than that over the past seven years in live cash-game play or online; either of these is a possibility and neither is well-tracked.
Details of the latest claim filed against White’s holdings repeat some information from the earlier and ongoing claim, but this time focus on the flow of money into White’s banking and crypto accounts. The action, filed on May 6, is titled “United States of America v $2,457,790.72 in funds seized from JPMorgan Chase Bank account #xxx0905, et al“.
White was targeted with search and seizure warrants on November 15, 2018. Officers identified and seized all of the following:
a. Up to $5,900,000.00 contained in Chase Platinum Business Checking account ending in 0905 in the name of Viral Sensations Inc.
b. Up to $1,420,223.00 contained in Chase Platinum Business Checking account ending in 3511 in the name of Viral Sensations Inc.
c. Up to $90,000 contained in Chase Platinum Business Checking account ending in 2125 in the name of Viral Sensations Inc.
d. Up to $419,367.52 contained in Chase Premier Platinum Checking account ending in 8881 in the name of Talon V. White.
e. Up to $8,029,933.72 contained in White’s Stripe account.
f. Up to 78.93162817 Bitcoin from Talon White’s Coinbase account.
g. Up to 5.74017141 Bitcoin Cash from Talon White’s Coinbase account.
h. Up to 1022.390668 Ethereum, from Talon White’s Coinbase account.
Agents also located and seized, according to an affidavit from IRS agent Keith Druffel, “$1,521 in White’s wallet, $5,200 in a
nightstand, and $26,200 in a safe, for a total seizure of $32,921 in U.S. Currency.”
The Viral Sensations Inc. entity was incorporated in Nevada in March 2017, and according to the Druffel statement, served as a conduit for funds generated from the streaming sites. These two paragraphs describe some of the alleged activity, which originated with hundreds of thousands of streaming subscriptions paid via PayPal, Stripe, and other online channels:
20. Deposits into the VSI account ending in 0905 from account opening through August 31, 2018 exceeded $5.9 million. Deposits included a Wells Fargo Bank cashier’s check in the amount of $566,292.04 payable to Talon V. White that was purchased by Talon V. White with funds in his Wells Fargo Bank account. As stated above, funds deposited into White’s Wells Fargo Bank account consisted of subscriptions to the movie websites established by White and from transfers from other bank accounts established by White that received proceeds from the movie subscription websites. Subsequent deposits into the Chase 0905 account from Stripe have been identified as proceeds from subscriptions to the websites described above. Deposits from Stripe often exceeded $100,000 per deposit.
21. Withdrawals from the Chase 0905 account include over $1 million used to purchase cryptocurrency through Coinbase, a virtual currency exchange. Transfers to Coinbase often exceeded $10,000 per transaction. For example, on August 21, 2018, $25,000 was transferred from account 0905 to Coinbase for the purchase of cryptocurrency.
Talon White and his defense counsel have yet to file as a claimant in the case involving the bank balances and cryptocurrency. White has 30 days to file a claim following the official notice of the seizure, which appears to have been filed on May 7, plus an additional 21 days to file a response to the allegations laid out in the initial complaint.Newport, Oregon “poker pro” Talon White has again been targeted by United States prosecutors who continue to unravel the workings of a major video-piracy operation hosted on various sites such as NoobRoom, Superchillin, Sit2Play, and Movietv.to that operated in turns from 2013 until seized by federal agents last year. A home owed by White in Newport, Oregon, was targeted in a seizure effort last November, while a second case filed earlier this month has targeted nearly four million dollars in bank-account balances and cryptocurrency holdings controlled by White and linked directly to the copyright-violating streaming services he allegedly operated.
White’s name was withheld in initial reports, including here at Flushdraw, due to his not being arrested in connection with the video-piracy operations. However, his name has now been made public in several other published reports. White, 28, had already filed as a claimant in the matter involving his $336,000 Newport, OR home, which sits a few short block inland and has prominent views of the Pacific Ocean. (This writer has spent a couple of weeks in Newport and the surrounding coastal area and is familiar with the area.)
Talon White (Source: WSOP.com)
White, 28, was described by his Texas-based attorney Rain Minns to Oregon’s KOIN-TV as being a professional poker player. White does have some tournament results, including a final-two-tables effort in Event #9 of the 2018 WSOP, $10,000 Omaha Hi-Lo 8-or-Better Championship, where he cashed for $20,948, the second-largest recorded cash of his live-poker career.
However, White (pictured at right) has barely topped $100,000 in recorded career live-event tournament winnings. This implies that if he is a true poker professional, he has earned much more than that over the past seven years in live cash-game play or online; either of these is a possibility and neither is well-tracked.
Details of the latest claim filed against White’s holdings repeat some information from the earlier and ongoing claim, but this time focus on the flow of money into White’s banking and crypto accounts. The action, filed on May 6, is titled “United States of America v $2,457,790.72 in funds seized from JPMorgan Chase Bank account #xxx0905, et al“.
White was targeted with search and seizure warrants on November 15, 2018. Officers identified and seized all of the following:
a. Up to $5,900,000.00 contained in Chase Platinum Business Checking account ending in 0905 in the name of Viral Sensations Inc.
b. Up to $1,420,223.00 contained in Chase Platinum Business Checking account ending in 3511 in the name of Viral Sensations Inc.
c. Up to $90,000 contained in Chase Platinum Business Checking account ending in 2125 in the name of Viral Sensations Inc.
d. Up to $419,367.52 contained in Chase Premier Platinum Checking account ending in 8881 in the name of Talon V. White.
e. Up to $8,029,933.72 contained in White’s Stripe account.
f. Up to 78.93162817 Bitcoin from Talon White’s Coinbase account.
g. Up to 5.74017141 Bitcoin Cash from Talon White’s Coinbase account.
h. Up to 1022.390668 Ethereum, from Talon White’s Coinbase account.
Agents also located and seized, according to an affidavit from IRS agent Keith Druffel, “$1,521 in White’s wallet, $5,200 in a
nightstand, and $26,200 in a safe, for a total seizure of $32,921 in U.S. Currency.”
The Viral Sensations Inc. entity was incorporated in Nevada in March 2017, and according to the Druffel statement, served as a conduit for funds generated from the streaming sites. These two paragraphs describe some of the alleged activity, which originated with hundreds of thousands of streaming subscriptions paid via PayPal, Stripe, and other online channels:
20. Deposits into the VSI account ending in 0905 from account opening through August 31, 2018 exceeded $5.9 million. Deposits included a Wells Fargo Bank cashier’s check in the amount of $566,292.04 payable to Talon V. White that was purchased by Talon V. White with funds in his Wells Fargo Bank account. As stated above, funds deposited into White’s Wells Fargo Bank account consisted of subscriptions to the movie websites established by White and from transfers from other bank accounts established by White that received proceeds from the movie subscription websites. Subsequent deposits into the Chase 0905 account from Stripe have been identified as proceeds from subscriptions to the websites described above. Deposits from Stripe often exceeded $100,000 per deposit.
21. Withdrawals from the Chase 0905 account include over $1 million used to purchase cryptocurrency through Coinbase, a virtual currency exchange. Transfers to Coinbase often exceeded $10,000 per transaction. For example, on August 21, 2018, $25,000 was transferred from account 0905 to Coinbase for the purchase of cryptocurrency.
Talon White and his defense counsel have yet to file as a claimant in the case involving the bank balances and cryptocurrency. White has 30 days to file a claim following the official notice of the seizure, which appears to have been filed on May 7, plus an additional 21 days to file a response to the allegations laid out in the initial complaint.
COMMENTS