According to a November 12 California court filing, poker pro Gordon Vayo has voluntarily dismissed his $600,000 lawsuit against online poker giant PokerStars amid accusations of forgery.

Vayo had been pursuing a lawsuit against PokerStars for withholding the bulk of his victory in Event #1 of the 2017 PokerStars SCOOP series under allegations that he had been playing on the site from the United States, which is well-known to be against the terms of service for the website.

However, Vayo surrendering the lawsuit by no means marks the end of the issue as the parent company of PokerStars, Rational Entertainment Enterprises Limited (aka “REEL”) has filed their own motion against Vayo seeking reimbursement for lawyer fees in the amount of over $279,000 citing his original lawsuit and evidence was based on forged documents.

Accusations of Forgery

REELs filing suggests that the company had discovered the forgery, confronted Vayo and this is what prompted him to “voluntarily and unconditionally” dismiss his lawsuit. At the same time they confronted him, Vayo’s own counsel withdrew from the case.

During what is described as a “routine security review” by PokerStars, it was determined that Vayo had, essentially, been using a VPN to simulate a Canadian IP in order to play SCOOP. Vayo claimed that he was physically in Canada and when pressed for proof, he provided a pair of documents – a bill from his Internet Service Provider in Canada (Bell Canada) and bank account statement from the time in question.

REEL states that these documents were forged and Vayo’s lawsuit was based upon these forgeries.

“REEL received a ‘tip’ from a third party that Vayo’s bank and internet records were altered by a document forger Vayo hired (the ‘Forger’), specifically in order to create the false impression that Vayo was in Canada during the SCOOP tournament so he could fraudulently demand payment from REEL,” the motion states.

REEL contacted Vayo’s attorneys on a Friday with the information and by Monday, Vayo had dismissed the case. REEL also states that the “Forger” had also supplied the third party with the original documents, giving REEL the proof they were looking for.

PokerStars Seeks Reparations

The document continues to ask the court for the repayment of their attorney fees. It states that Vayo, playing on PokerStars from inside the US, breached their End User License Agreement and are entitled to “costs and expenses, including legal fees.”

The legal fees are substantial by most metrics.

“REEL seems to recover for 345.80 hours of time spent by Quinn Emanuel on this matter, in the total amount of $279,347.49, plus whatever sums it spends on this motion, the reply tried and attend the hearing.”

In addition the attorney fees, REEL is looking for an additional $8,641.08 in costs, including administrative costs, couriers and research.

With Vayo out of options for recovering the balance of his account, according to PokerStars policy, the amount of his victory that was unable to be recovered will be donated to charity. Vayo is perhaps best known as the runner-up in the 2016 World Series of Poker Main Event where he earned over $4.6 million.