Longueuil, Quebec, Canada — Local police authorities have announced that half of the reported $115,000 cash stolen from 2010 WSOP champion Jonathan Duhamel in a robbery last December has been found. An anonymous tipster provided the police with information which led to the discovery of an envelope full of cash matching the denominations and currency reported to be stolen.
As many readers are aware, Duhamel was recently a victim of a home invasion, robbery and assault after his ex-girlfriend and poker player Bianca Rojas-Latraverse, along with 3 accomplices, fooled Duhamel into letting them into his condo. The poker champ was tied up and physically assaulted, forcing him to reveal the combination to his home safe. The thieves then made off with $40,000 Canadian dollars, 74,000 Euros, a personalized Rolex watch and his prized WSOP bracelet.
The other half of the stolen cash, along with the WSOP bracelet, has not yet been recovered. There seem to be no conclusive information on how much the bracelet is worth in monetary terms – the mainstream media is reporting a value of $40,000 – but in any case a personally engraved WSOP Main Event bracelet which has been reported stolen does not seem a liquid asset that one could easily sell without incriminating the seller, unless the metal was melted down, effectively destroying the collectible value of the bracelet. The bracelet is most likely made of precious metals like gold and platinum, but the melt value of the bracelet would certainly be far below the reported $40,000. (At today’s gold prices, the bracelet would need to be made of 1.7 lb in pure gold in order for it to have a melt value of $40,000 making for a pretty uncomfortable piece of jewellery to wear!) The other piece of jewellery stolen, the Rolex watch, was also personally engraved and thus just as difficult to sell. Combine this with fact that the invasion and robbery was committed brazenly in the presence of the victim and was apparently orchestrated by an ex-girlfriend gives the crime the appearance of being motivated by personal vendetta rather than financial gain. Seeing that Rojas-Latraverse has claimed in court to be a professional poker player herself, jealousy of Duhamel’s tournament success might be speculated to be an underlying motive.
Rojas-Latraverse, along with co-perpetrators Anthony Bourque, John Clark, and André-Robert Perron, were arrested facing charges of conspiracy, assault, kidnapping, and breaking-and-entering a few days after the home invasion. Clark and Rojas-Latraverse, the latter of whom is accused of masterminding the robbery, have been denied bail. The accused are to make a court appearance on Feb. 21.