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Poker Star Arrested for Drum-Banging Jan. 6 Capitol Incursion
A 45-year-old Virginia doctor who earned hundreds of thousands of dollars playing poker was arrested by federal agents on Tuesday for allegedly breaching the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, according to court records.
Karthik Ramakrishnan, a resident of the small town of Bluefield, was taken into custody in connection to four separate charges related to his presence in the Capitol building. A seven-page criminal complaint obtained by The Daily Beast outlines how he allegedly entered the Capitol six minutes after it was first breached.
Wearing a surgical mask—that he eventually removed—and “banging a small drum,” Ramakrishnan wandered around the Capitol for just under half an hour before walking out one of its front doors.
Last April, a tipster approached the FBI and told the agency that Ramakrishnan had gone to Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6, according to the complaint. The tipster, a business associate of Ramakrishnan’s, said that the 45-year-old had sent them footage of his trip, including photos of the rally that preceded the riots.
He then told the tipster that he had other photos he couldn’t share, “because ‘they could get him in trouble,’” the complaint states.
The tipster told the FBI that they’d asked Ramakrishnan at one point if he’d entered the Capitol. “I deny it,” Ramakrishnan replied, according to the complaint.
Ramakrishnan has no prior criminal record. A physician with more than two decades of experience, according to his social media activity, Ramakrishnan was working at an outpatient clinic company he’d founded in 2011 at the time of his arrest. The company, his LinkedIn states, is “focused on providing excellent care to the rural communities we serve in Virginia and West Virginia.”
The doctor has also earned more than $440,000 in prizes at poker tournaments both in the U.S. and internationally, including in Barcelona and South Korea, according to a player database.
He is expected to make a virtual appearance in court next Thursday. His arrest was first reported by an NBC News journalist.
A total of 1,041 people had been charged in connection with the Capitol attack as of Thursday, according to Jan6thData, a Twitter account that tracks such cases.
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