[Xylocain]

Hmm, I guess I should have found something better to to this evening but... here is a translation of a recent interview with anothother "victim". The original text was pretty terrible so after mangling it through the babelfish [me]its no surprise its even worse [det är skrivet av samma snubbe som var programledare för "glöm inte tandborsten" vad förväntar man sig...]. Anyway, here goes.



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Speculations on a so called “gambling scandal” have caused many to raise an eyebrowse recently. It has been a few years since the actual date of the supposed [criminal act] by a well known pokerprofile in Sweden and the truth is slowly fading away.

After Erik Sagström stepped forward here on ProSharks recently and has given his version of the story many have asked for the other victimes, and for them to present their views on what happened..

One of these is Christer Johansson, professional poker player since many years. He has, out of respect for a prior agreement between the six players and Ken Lenaard, chose to wait with giving his views on the issue but now there is no respect left and here you can read his thoughts on the matter.

Christer, why do you choose to come forward and tell us now?

CJ: we chose not to contact media about this story mainly for Kens sake, and because he asked us not to, so that he could make the story public himself. As time has gone by, the rumor grew stronger and when media contacted us, we felt obliged to give our version.

What was you opinion on the game taking place in a hotel?

CJ: It sounded of course very intresting, after all its not every day you get the opportunity to play a billionaire, and at that according to Ken, a terrible one, but for different reasons that I will get back to we chose not to participate.

In economical terms Exactly what kind of money are we talking about?

CJ: We were playing shorthanded 2000-4000 fixed limit back then, this was before the real high stakes games were played on the internet. So to most people this was very high stakes. There is no doubt we would have lost a significant portion of our bank rolls had we participated in the rigged game.

What made you finally turn the game down?

CJ: It was actually Ken that made us turn it down. We all felt it was odd that this billionaire could not or would not meet us at “Kortoxen” (a cardclub in Stockholm, trans. note) and play us there. Security was good and we all felt safe there. We felt like home with the facilities, dealers and decks.

How was your relation to Ken before this was brought to light?

CJ: We have known each other for a long time and played lots of poker together. We have never associated privately outside of poker, maybe because we are too different. Ken likes to be seen and makes sure to always get his cut for good and worse.

Do I dare to ask what your relation is now?

CJ: I will always be dissapointed and angry with him for what he tried to do, but at least I appreciated him contacting me and telling me about this, and that I have told him so.

How did you find out?

CJ: Erik Sagström sent me a link at the beginning of the summer after Russ made his story public. And later I received a phone call from Martin that also had got the link.

Kent called you in person, what did he tell you?

CJ: It was very hard of course and I told him that I would never lie or cover up anything about this for him. But of course I also promised to not exaggerate, backbite or in any other way make matters worse than they actually were.

Have you been in contact with the others during this time?

CJ: We have spoken quite a lot via chatt and phone but we have not met to discuss the incident.

What is your agreement with Ken?

CJ: I don’t know if I can call it an agreement but we wanted to let Ken make the story public in a way that we would all agree on. Ken understood this and agreed to it.

How do you move on?

CJ: I’m so tired of the whole thing. Ever since my name was mentioned in Eriks interview I have received lots of questions from all kind of people and various media. I hope my story will answer these questions and that we can now move on to nicer and more positive things in poker.

How do you think this all ends?

CJ: I hope Ken will go public and explain himself, but I don’t have much hopes of that happening. I also think that Pokerförbundet (The Swedish poker association, trans. note) have handled this whole thing in a bad way.

/Joakim Geigert – ProSharks AB

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