For poker enthusiasts who have been following industry news keenly, the news of Cory Zeidman’s indictment is no surprise. The professional poker player who has been in the sports headlines for a long time has been indicted for fraud. According to the charge sheet presented before the court, Zeidman has a case to answer regarding accusations that he has been illegally operating a sports betting scheme whose main aim was to con unsuspecting victims. For a period of more than 15 years during which the alleged fraud scheme has been operational, the longtime poker player has obtained millions of dollars from his victims.
The indictment was filed with the States District Court for the Eastern District of New York on May 25, 2022. The major charges against the poker sites pro are money laundering, mail fraud, and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. All these are connected to sports betting operations in Long Island and Florida run by the poker legend.
Zeidman is a well-known casino professional and has been an inspiration to many upcoming poker starts over the years. Many new-generation poker players will know him from this 2012 win of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) championship bracelet. He was arrested on Wednesday morning in Florida and is expected to make his first appearance in a Miami court for his initial hearing.
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Multi-Million Dollar Fraud Scheme
In the 13-page long indictment, which had been earlier filed on May 17, Zeidman is alleged to have been in the executive management of the “Phoenix Organization.” The documents presented in court indicate that he was a company leader between January 2004 and March 2020. Alongside his co-conspirators, Zeidman are believed to have paid for advertisements to run on radio stations for their target markets all over the US. The advertisements made claim of a ‘sophisticated white-collar approach to gathering sports information’ which then promised people that the bets they place will be an investment with a low risk of loss.
According to the radio advertisements that ran on radio for Zeidman’s organizations, listeners were supposed call a certain number that had been provided so as to receive instructions which they would then use to place winning bets on sports. The indictment went on to reveal that when the callers got connected to Zeidman’s team on the telephone, they were told that some matches had ‘fixed’ outcomes that Zeidman knew of. In addition to that, Zeidman has been accused of misleading the public with claims that he had “privileged” information on certain sporting events. This was supposed to give his victims a false sense of security when placing sports bets with the company.
Since Zeidman and his team had capitalized on offering “crucial betting leads,” they demanded that their victims pay for it. According to the prosecutor, this information was either false or derived from intense internet scrapping. Within the time that their company was in business, Zeidman and his co-defendants managed to collect over $25 million. The prosecutor approached the matter from the perspective of a victim who had been duped by the betting specialist company. Apart from defrauding the victims, the existence of the company led to significant loss life savings for some as well as draining of retirement accounts for others.
With all the money that was collected from these false claims, it is reported that five New Yorker Scammers; Zeidman and his partners spent it on high-end vacations, international travel, seed capital for poker betting and a palatial home. According to the state attorney prosecuting the case, the indictment should serve as a reminder to everyone who is interested in making a quick buck that some of the investment opportunities that are based on insider information are in fact a gamble that is not worth the risk. The pending case against him will be prosecuted by Assistant US Attorneys Diane Beckmann Anthony Bagnuola, and Charles P. Kelly.
There are additional charges to the crimes that the poker pro is accused to have actually committed; conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud as well as conspiracy to commit money laundering. In a twist that demonstrates that Zeidman was aware of the nature of what he was involved in, the court has been presented with evidence that the accused used multiple aliases; Steve Nash, Joel Orenstein, Mark Lewis, Paul Knox, Simon Coates, David Coates, Gordon Howard, Elliot Stern, Rick Cash, Ray Palmer, Walter Barr, Mr. Carlyle, and Richard Barnes. When it came to company names, some of the ones he is believed to have used are Grant Sports International, Ray Palmer Group and Gordon Howard Global.
Poker Championship wins
Now 61 years old, Zeidman has clearly had an extensive poker career that he kicked off in the late 1990s. His first cash win of $8,481 at a WSOP was realized when he finished eighth in a $1,500 buy-in Seven-Card Stud championship.
In May 2004, a short while before he is alleged to have started the sports betting scheme, the now professional poker player finished in position five at a WSOP $5,000 buy-in Seven Card Stud World Championship to bag a cash price of $44,000. Obviously an expert in the stud games, Zeidman won his first WSOP bracelet in 2012 after winning event #4. For $1,500, Zeidman took down the Seven-Card Stud for a price of $201,559.
When the cameras flashed before him, the poker pro had already had his moment from the many poker productions that had been a part of. One of these instances was quite memorable having won a cooler against opponent, Jen Harman, at the WSOP Main Event of 2005. With this tournament, the battle was between ‘straight-flush’ versus ‘full-house hand.’
For Zeidman has won a total of $691,141 from his poker career, his participation in the WSOP 2021 did not amount to any benefit. The Hendon Mob reports that his latest win was cash obtained from Poker Tour (WPT) Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown in March 2022 – from a 12th position finish after buy-in of $400.
