Afghanistan’s top poker tournament player and WSOPE bracelet winner, Shekhan Farnood, has died in a prison in Kabul, Afghanistan. He had earned a total of $627,647 in live-tournament cashes in a career that began in 2002 and saw him win a WSOPE bracelet in 2008 when he took first place at a HORSE tournament for $140,039. That win came as he overcame a final table that was represented with the likes of Phil Ivey, Howard Lederer and Jeff Lisandro.

Farnood moved from poker to finances, running the largest private money company in Afghanistan, Kabul Bank, as well as a business based in Moscow that facilitated Sharia-compliant financial transactions. He was also the chairman of Pamir Airways until it went belly up following his arrest in 2011.

Farnood, who was either 55 or 57 at the time of his death, was arrested in 2011 for running a Ponzi scheme that reportedly embezzled almost $800 million from money destined to rebuild the war-torn country. He reportedly used his bank to siphon money that was ultimately used for Dubai land deals and golf villas, relying on connections within the government of the country’s former president, Hamid Karzai, to facilitate the scheme.

Farnood knew that his actions were wrong, but assumed he was immune from prosecution. Prior to his arrest, he was recorded as saying, “What I’m doing is not proper, not exactly what I should do. But this is Afghanistan.” Due to his fraud, the US suspended $3.9 billion in aid to the country in 2011.