Full Tilt Player Arrested On 505 Counts
Written by Renee K | Friday, March 6th, 2009
Whenever a poker professional gets arrested he immediately makes news. How significant a player he is or how significant are the charges pale into oblivion. This is what happened in the case of Eric “Lafayette” Cloutier.
Apart from having played poker, Cloutier is a bar owner in Lafayette and owns Marley’s Downtown and Karma. He was also an ice hockey player. Louisiana Alcohol and Tobacco Control officials arrested him on 505 counts related to tax evasion, racketeering, computer fraud, felony theft and money laundering.
Translated into English this reads that Cloutier is charged with laundering $1.4 million through his businesses over three years by electronically manipulating his cash registers to conceal sales transactions. This enabled him to evade taxes as well. $1.4 million sounds a lot of money but is probably less than the daily turnover at the Full Tilt Poker tables. 505 counts also seems a lot, but 340 of those were for obstruction of justice and 92 were for filing false public records. Cloutier is alleged to have obtained two alcohol permits by providing false information on the application affidavits.
At Two Plus Two the posting of the press release of Cloutier’s arrest has drawn considerable interest. Some question his poker credentials. Poker Pages lists his tournament winnings at $160,016, which are peanuts compared to the amount he is accused of laundering.
In April and May of 2005 he had two second places and one sixth place. But since then he has not been in single digits. His latest win came in WSOP 2008, where a 36th place won him one of his largest cashes. However the profile on Poker Pages has a lot of interesting stuff about Cloutier.
His marital status is single but he has one child. His hobbies are business, poker, car racing and partying. His favorite place is lying down on the bed getting a massage and his favorite celebrity is his father. The best is his entry for poker players he respects most. Cloutier says, “The ones that don’t talk about their bad beats, so not too many.”
Many at Two Plus Two remember playing with him. One of them writes, “I first remember playing with this guy about 4 years ago in Tunica, think he’s got a French accent if I remember right. He always seemed like he was balling out now we know why. Also I remember him dating some hot ass masseuses from Bellagio.”
The last part ties up nicely with Cloutier’s favorite place. Because he mentions a “celebrity dad” many place him as the son of the great T.J Cloutier who has over $9 million in tournament winnings. But Wicked Chops Poker emphatically says that there is no relation between the two.
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· Written by Renee K · Filed Under Poker Gossip · Comments Off
