The story of Phil Laak and accusations about him being involved with drug smuggling and hiring hitmen has traveled pretty far since the target of the alleged hit, Tom Grant, came forward with his charges a few weeks ago. Grant promised 2+2 that he would publish all his evidence on Aug 10th. He changed the date to Aug 8th and then back to Aug 10th again. Well, Aug 10th has come and gone and his website still reads, “THIS WEB-SITE WE BE UPLOADED WITH NEW INFORMATION ON FRIDAY 10TH AUGUST.” Tom came on to the 2+2 forums to explain, “Sorry gents I hope you enjoyed the post but the matter has been solved to my satisfaction.I hope all your aces stand up regards.Tom ”
So much like a lapdance, after such a big set-up there is no payoff. Nothing has been confirmed nor has anything been disproven. So what can we take away from the entire incident? Well, we know that Tom Grant wasn’t honest with me in his email in which he stated:
You must understand that Phil paid money to have my wife shot and wanted to see Quote:pictures of the bitch.
E.I do not want any money I just want to ruin his reputation.
So, how could this situation have be resolved to his satisfaction if his goal was to ruin Phil’s reputation? He produced no evidence of anything he said. One can only assume that either he was a crazy stalker type or that money did somehow resolve the situation. And if it’s the later that would make it twice now that he’s taken Phil for a ride. Somehow I doubt saying “I’m really sorry” does it when you try to get somebody and his wife whacked.
glimmertwin on 2+2 was kind enough to dig up a link to a story about Grant’s travel business that seems to support the fact that he’s not always on the up and up:
CAUTION ALERT: ADVENTURE HOLIDAYS THAILAND
Ingrid Leroy, of Belgium, wrote to inform Global Access News about her family’s recent negative experience with Adventure Holidays Thailand.
Ingrid’s comments appear below:
Hello: Last Christmas we booked a trip to Malaysia with our family (two adults, one of them is a paraplegic and 2 teenagers) with this agency: http://www.adventure-holidays-thailand.com/
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!
We had to cancel the flight tickets (booked in Belgium) because we paid already everything to Tom and he canceled all the hotels in Malaysia. We were totally disappointed and stayed at home.
Tom Grant promised us several times to pay us back all the money (more than 7.000 US$). Now, it is already September and still he didn’t pay back one cent!
The year before (2003) we booked a trip with him to Thailand, and then everything was OK, so we trusted him and paid all the money for the Malaysian trip before we left. This person is unreliable, and we would warn other disabled travellers not to book a trip to Thailand or Asia with this agency and this person Tom Grant. He says he is bankrupt, but he is still advertising and we really want to warn other disabled travellers!
Of course, we also send this story to the Thai authorities!Thanks for your help,
Lieven Vandoorne & Ingrid LeroyTom Grant’s letter to Ingrid and Lieven follows:
Hi Ingrid & Lieven:
I am so very sorry but I must cancel your trip. Malaysia have not been honest with me about certain things and we cannot go ahead. So sorry I will refund all you money at the end of the year.
Regards,
TomEditor’s note: When booking travel on-line travel, use extreme caution. Try to learn as much as possible about an agency’s background and seek testimonials from previous disabled customers of theirs who share their candid experiences of an agency. Be sure to clearly state your access needs and ask specific questions before booking. Global Access has removed a link to this site until further notice.
I’ve sent Grant and email asking about details on how this situation was resolved and will post an update if he gets back to me (which I’m doubting at this point).
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Hi, my name is Bill Rini and this is my poker blog. I've been blogging about poker and the poker industry since around 2003-ish. Like most people I started out playing poker as entertainment in home games whenever we wanted to sit around and smoke cigars, drink beer, and eat pizza, and needed a good excuse. I started playing online shortly after the first online card rooms opened and it wasn't long before I was playing 20, 30, or even 40 hours a week or more. One day I received a phone call about a program manager position at Tiltware which was the company that consulted to Full Tilt Poker on software development and marketing. After Tiltware I spent about 2.5 years working at Party Poker where I was the poker room manager.
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