Berlin Poker Tour Heist Masterminds Trial Begins

The trial of Mohammed Abou-Charka and Ibrahim al Moussa has begun in the Berlin state court and is expected to go through until November.

The two men are alleged to have been behind a brazen robbery during a televised poker tournament in Berlin.

Four other men have already been placed behind bars.

Abou-Charka and al Moussa are accused of masterminding the plan that resulted in nearly $350,000 being taken from the Berlin Poker Tour event at the Grand Hyatt Hotel. 

Masterminds, maybe…but German police said otherwise at the time.

As reported by Gambling911.com following this past spring’s robbery:

[B]ecause the well-timed heist bore the signs of an amateur job, police told Berlin daily Berliner Zeitung that they now believe there was at least one other accomplice already inside the hotel who gave a signal to begin the raid.

"The suspects struck at the exact moment when the money was being prepared for transport at the main safe," a police spokesperson told the paper. "A few minutes before or after and they would have had no chance."

That raised flags that this could have been an inside job.

Police called the robbers "amateurs" after reviewing tape of the incident.

Patrick Flanagan, Gambling911.com