(Left to Right) Andreas Oscarsson, a man charged with trying to extort him, billionaire investor Stefan Bengtsson, and former Hells Angel president Thomas Möller.

A 44-year-old man allegedly tried to extort PokerListings for nearly $2 million; the site’s murdered cofounder, Andreas Oscarsson, was to testify against him this week on aggravated racketeering charges. The unidentified man claims he was working for operatives of billionaire Stefan Bengtsson, an early investor in PokerListings and one of the richest men in Sweden — supposedly trying to collect promised monies withheld after passage of the UIGEA.

At least that’s what we can tell from Swedish-to-English Google translations … should be interesting to see what comes out in the extortion and racketeering trial, which may or may not have provided a motive for killing Oscarsson this past summer.

Haley Hintze (former editor of PokerNews) is following the story closely, and she’s dug up the latest from Swedish press (and 2+2). Highlights from her work below, along with a few more clicks worth of info about some of the characters emerging in this tragic tale of a boomtime poker media pioneer who became somebody’s target and a violent casualty after the online affiliate bubble burst.

Plausibly important allegations, defenses, and partially verified connections:

More…

McDaniel.

Bosch.

James McDaniel gets sentenced today. McDaniel, of course, is the smooth-talking, purple-suit-wearing rogue Dallas underground-poker-room-operator/drug-dealer convicted in June for contributing to the overdose death of SMU coed Meaghan Bosch. Good money says he will go to prison for the rest of his life … as he was already on parole after serving 20 years for the murder of a former Dallas cop before he got into the underground poker scene. Jurors in the Bosch case were not told his past murder conviction, nor were they allowed to consider allegations from up to a dozen young women claiming they were drugged and raped inside his poker room, some of them apparently on video.

UPDATE: McDaniel did indeed get life. He is currently in custody at Seagoville’s federal prison, but will likely be sent to a less comfortable state prison to finish out his old murder sentence before being sent back to Seagoville for his time on Bosch’s death.

Oscarsson.

Meanwhile, Swedish police are still looking for clues around Europe in the murder of PokerListings founder Andreas Oscarsson. They’ve concluded that indeed his killing was carefully planned by a professional hitman — with his family home fully staked out, exits noted, etc. … allowing the killer to break into the house and fire six silenced shots into Oscarsson and then leave without waking his six family members also asleep in the house that night. And while no motive has been disclosed, apparently investigators have unearthed at least a few death threats against him. and possibly have ruled out some Latvians.

Click here and here for Google translations of the latest from Hungarian news reports.

Dean.

Urch.

And Daniel Dean will get a new trial in the death of fellow amateur poker player Mark Urch. The two players were involved in a drunken dispute over hands in an Australian amateur pub tourney, and when they took matters outside, Dean leveled Urch with a single punch to the head, a blow that caused his death a couple days later. Australian courts sentenced Dean to seven years for manslaughter (eligible for release in May 2011). However, an appeals court threw out the conviction last month and ordered a retrial, on the grounds that the judge may have misinformed the jury about provocation and self-defense matters of law.

There’s a Daniel Dean support group on Facebook.

Andreas Oscarsson
Photo: PokerListings.com

The father of Andreas Oscarsson, the PokerListings cofounder murdered in Sweden two months ago, says his son was the victim of a professional hit. He spoke on Swedish TV (their equivalent of America’s Most Wanted, I believe) in hopes that the public can help police solve this crime.

Apparently there was almost no evidence left behind.

Oscarsson, of course, was one of the biggest success stories of the international online poker boom — not as a player, but in helping bring players to online sites — and he accumulated vast wealth in a relatively short period of time. The semi-retired poker affiliate kingpin was on a brief holiday to his family home in Sweden this past August when an unknown assailant quietly broke into the house. He was shot six times with what investigators believe was a silencer-capped pistol as his wife, parents, and two-year-old son slept.

Hear Oscarsson’s father in his own (chilling) words:

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You don’t need to speak Swedish to kinda-sorta understand what this is really all about …

Click below for two recent stories (Google translations) about the highest-stakes murder the Swedes have seen in a long while … one police do not seem close to solving.

More…

Harris County sheriff’s deputies raided a poker room on the northwest outskirts of Houston this afternoon. There were about 8 tables of action — a $300 tournament had just gotten underway — and 11 were arrested. Police say the raid came after two months of investigation.

Hmm, sounds kinda like the Aces bust in terms of numbers. However some key differences are that nine of the busted were charged with organized crime. Yeow! No no no … Class C misdemeanor … maybe a Class A that can be pled down! Leave it to Houston to try to outdo/be tougher than Dallas.

From the local ABC news team:

they weren’t playing ordinary poker matches. Thousands of dollars were at stake in the sophisticated operation.

“You gotta know somebody to get in. They have two doors to gain entry. It’s operated by a button to gain entry, as well as they have cameras to monitor who’s at the front door,” said an officer.

Indeed, a button to gain entry. Case closed, obviously.

One of the other players arrested got cuffed for “unlawfully carrying a weapon” and the other guy ha an outstanding warrant.

This room had reportedly been around since late last summer. We’ll see if we can’t find out more about how this all shook down, where the room went wrong, and what’s really gonna come out of these organized crime allegations.

Thanks, Jim in Houston, for the tip.