Professional poker participant and sports activities betting tout Cory Zeidman pleaded responsible in a federal court docket in New York Wednesday to defrauding prospects in his sports activities handicapping enterprise.
Cory Zeidman, above, charged “extortionate” charges for sports activities betting recommendation that was both “fictitious or obtained from an web search,” in line with the feds. (Picture: Seminole Coconut Creek)
Federal prosecutors alleged that the World Collection of Poker bracelet winner and his co-defendants duped prospects to pay for betting recommendation by claiming to have insider information, “solely to feed them lies and pocket hundreds of thousands of {dollars} from their financial savings and retirement accounts.”
Boca Raton, Fla. resident Zeidman, 61, has earned nearly $700,000 in gross event winnings in a 25-year poker profession. He received his WSOP title in 2012 in 7-card stud. Previous to that, he was finest identified for arguably slow-rolling Jennifer Harman whereas holding a straight flush in opposition to her full home on the 2005 WSOP predominant occasion.
Scheme Generated $25M
From 2004 to 2020, Zeidman’s racket provided bettors entry to “privileged info” about participant accidents, “soiled referees,” and sporting occasions that have been “fastened” – all false, in line with prosecutors. The group marketed its companies on nationwide radio utilizing bogus names like “Gordon Howard International” and “Ray Palmer Group.”
When bettors contacted the group doubtlessly to put money into the scheme, they have been advised it obtained info on accidents from docs and that tv executives have been giving it the lowdown on the purportedly predetermined outcomes of video games. This rendered sports activities betting a “low or no-risk proposition,” prosecutors mentioned.
Zeidman and his co-defendants collected round $25 million in “exorbitant” charges from prospects in trade for info that “was both fictitious or obtained from an web search,” in line with court docket particulars.
Shortly after his arrest in 2022, Zeidman advised PokerNews that he meant to plead not responsible, quoting Nietzsche (the final refuge of a scoundrel?) to insist his innocence.
“Within the phrases of Nietzsche, ‘Every little thing the state says is a lie and every thing it has it has stolen,’” he proclaimed.
Victims Disagree
Nevertheless it was Zeidman who was doing the fibbing and pilfering, in line with his victims, who contacted Homeland Safety about his scheme. That’s in distinction to his description of himself as “a person with the best stage of morals and integrity,” in his PokerNews spiel.
Sports activities bettors sought Cory Zeidman’s recommendation earlier than playing their cash — but it surely was Zeidman himself who was scoring large by his misleading practices, outright lies, and high-pressure ways that exploited unsuspecting purchasers,” particular agent Charles Walker of Homeland Safety in New York mentioned in a press release.
Zeidman pleaded responsible to conspiring to commit mail and wire fraud, which comes with a most sentence of 20 years in jail.
