Crazy Phil Laak story with Pics

[bustedromo]

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Congratulations. You have a grand total of three positive reviews.

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It's not three reviews, it's two. One by Katie Clarke and one by Judith Geppert (repeated in .pdf and .htm format). Both the reviews have suspiciously the same "talking style" and even some repeated passages.

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Do you think I could operate a business by ripping people off the Belgium people were paid back ages ago.And if you check this was a holiday in Malayasia

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Tom Grant: So, you're saying that it's ok to steal customers' money if they travel to Malaysia ? Or is it that it's ok to steal customers' money if they travel anywhere other than Thailand ?

I've never heard of a travel agency cancelling someone's trip and not refunding their money immediately. Isn't this the reason why people use travel agencies, so that the agency takes responsibility for the details ? Why should anyone ever use a travel agency if it's standard to suddenly cancel their trip with no explanation and not refund their money until they complain to the authorities and write negative reviews in travel publications ?

We don't have any proof that Lieven Vandoorne & Ingrid Leroy were refunded their money (it's not "paying them back" -- they didn't loan you money), just what you tell us, and you're an admitted liar.

Just read what Ingrid Leroy wrote :

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We paid everything in advance, and a few days before we should leave we got a letter in the mail. The owners of the agency (Tom Grant) did not give any explanation. We took contact with Malaysia and they told us (on telephone) that Tom Grant cancelled the whole trip due to health reasons of the paraplegic person! There was not any health problem with us, so he lied!

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A few days before they're going to leave they get a letter in the mail ???? Outrageous. What if that letter had arrived a few days later ? And to cancel the reservations you lied to the Malaysian hotels, etc. What did you use that $7000 for ? Personal gambling ? Heroin dealing ? Underaged prostitution ? Some other vice or criminal operation you run in Pattaya ?

What price was your blackmail of Laak ? What other illegal operations are you running in Pattaya ? Do the authorities know about you ? Local ? State ? Federal ? What crimes did you commit back in England ? Are you wanted for extradition ?

Guess what: I'm making sure that all of these authorities find out about you, your location, your business, and your dealings with Laak. I've already received communication from English ex-pats living in Pattaya who know you.

[glimmertwin]

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I love how the tone and support in this thread moved from

"Wow, Tom, sounds like Phil's a D-bag, please dish the dirt on this guy"...

to

"Tom, you're a sheisty heroin dealer who steals money from paraplegics, and I'd thrust a pitchfork into your colon and drink your blood if given the chance."

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This is News, Views and Gossip. You come in here, promising to share the good stuff and then fail to deliver at your mortal peril.

FWIW, I don't care about either Tom nor Phil. They both sound like scumbags to me -- though Phil's obviously the better looking and more charismatic of the two, hence the disparity between their respective partners.

I still think Tom's story sounds credible, I just wanna hear the full story. If that means doing to him what he threatened to do to Laak in order to encourage him to deliver, then lets get on with it.

[Billman]

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Do you think I could operate a business by ripping people off the Belgium people were paid back ages ago.And if you check this was a holiday in Malayasia

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Yeah, geez, what are people thinking? I mean, you claim to only be a herion smuggler and con artist. No way would you rip off a customer. :-)

Tom, you better come up with something better than putting your reputation out there as proof.

[sharkstevie]

woah crazy story

[seemorenuts]

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I thought that story was very telling about Laak's mindset at the time. He was willing to risk getting hurt or killed over a measly 45 cents !!!

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It sounds like a lot more when you say 10,000 Dong.

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It's table image. Personal values trump prices all the time.

[seemorenuts]

El Diablo and TeddyFBI's posts were right on, with bustedromo achieving two great streaks of accurate posts with a couple of faltering ones when he gets mad at Tom.

I didn't have the benefit of reading Tom's site, so I'd appreciate if someone could reproduce the text, I don't have the whole story, especially the part about phone calls from NY.

TeddyFBI is spot on about how silly it is that people are mad at Tom.

Re Tom's statements, we can't have expected him to reveal the truth even when he claimed, "yeah, I cheated him" because in the end, he'd have to face the authorities if he had to provide proof of any crimes he was involved with. He had to simply calculate that the pressure he put on Phil on whatever the situation they had (and believe it or not, it doesn't really matter what happened*) would hurt Phil more than it would hurt Tom. Of course, this is just perception, Tom has a smaller stack than Phil, but getting busted means they're both out of the 'tourney.'

Both had to calculate how much was enough to make Tom go away without returning for a repeat performance, so that's the pressure for a fair settlement.

*Nonetheless, if indeed there was a contract for a hit, I see absolutely no problem re the amounts because the consequences of blackmail could far exceed the initial monies involved (pointed out by Bill Rini and a few others on this thread).

People who feel cheated over relatively small amounts, if misunderstood, could generate enough fear that threats and exaggerations would warrant the concept that a hit would be the 'only' solution.

Lastly, given the NYC story I find it trivially easy to believe that someone in Phil's position would attempt illegal activity (no personal slight to Phil specifically, I found him to be a nice guy, lol, irrelevant here).

The nuance that no one has mentioned is the subtle twists that were available to Tom when he may have communicated his threats to Phil that would convince Phil that Tom had various outs--ways of explaining his side of the story that would leave him free of accusations of any wrongdoing, notwithstanding the email exchange with Rini, which would not carry much weight as evidence (he just has to say, well, I was just putting pressure on any way I could...to do the job).

I still think this may not be over for Phil, and I'm not saying he has to worry about Tom ... rather, the authorities and for his reputation (lol, in the poker world, oh that's rich, like he's the only baddie and anyone cares).

I would guess the feds would look into any money transfers, it isn't easy satisfying Tom without a trace, maybe JT has some buddies, etc.

Or maybe neteller traffics in simple apologies.

AGAIN, THOUGH I'VE SPECULATIVELY OPINED ON THE DETAILS, THESE ARE NOT THE ESSENTIALS. THEY HAD A DISAGREEMENT, AND PHIL DID SOMETHING NAUGHTY ENOUGH TO WARRANT SATISFYING TOM IN THE END, OR FOR NOW... (LDO).

[Billman]

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I thought that story was very telling about Laak's mindset at the time. He was willing to risk getting hurt or killed over a measly 45 cents !!!

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It sounds like a lot more when you say 10,000 Dong.

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It's table image. Personal values trump prices all the time.

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Either way, I'm not so sure I want paid in Dong

[seemorenuts]

Heroin and Opium have no major systemic effects (I guess that statement ignored long-term neurological changes, or the definition of systemic pertains to other organ systems).

The basic thrust is that cocaine could lead to cardiac arrest, heroin and opium, much more difficult to cause big problems...

High cost and mixing drugs lead to current problems.

Halstead was in good company, in those days cocaine was a commonly prescribed drug to treat depression among other maladies, and the next century saw almost all North American doctors addicted to Heroin until it got out of hand.

[bustedromo]

I'm almost completely sure Laak paid off Grant, and at the stakes they were playing for it was at least $100K. However, I think that Laak has possibly misplayed his hand here.

The act of payment transforms Grant's crime from a difficult to prove case of attempted blackmail to a much easier to prove case of successful blackmail (by reason of the money trail). I'm not sure under whose jurisdiction this would fall, but if the US authorities investigate and decide to press charges it could easily get into the mainstream news and even become a feature segment of 20/20 or similar.

Do we have any legal experts who can comment on exactly what criminal statute the blackmail would violate, what US authority or authorities would handle it, and what evidence would be required to launch an investigation ?

[Billman]

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I'm almost completely sure Laak paid off Grant, and at the stakes they were playing for it was at least $100K. However, I think that Laak has possibly misplayed his hand here.

The act of payment transforms Grant's crime from a difficult to prove case of attempted blackmail to a much easier to prove case of successful blackmail (by reason of the money trail). I'm not sure under whose jurisdiction this would fall, but if the US authorities investigate and decide to press charges it could easily get into the mainstream news and even become a feature segment of 20/20 or similar.

Do we have any legal experts who can comment on exactly what criminal statute the blackmail would violate, what US authority or authorities would handle it, and what evidence would be required to launch an investigation ?

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My guess is that nobody is going to touch it. How can you prove extortion when both parties won't admit it? Phil's not going to tell anybody Tom shook him down and Tom's not going to admit any payments were for keeping his mouth shut. Just an exchange of money between two old friends.