PokerNews was the first to announce that Cory Zeidman, the winner of the WSOP bracelet, has been sentenced to 46 months in federal prison for conspiracy to conduct wire fraud. In addition, he was mandated to reimburse his victims $3.7 million.
Last December, the 62-year-old veteran poker player entered a guilty plea to defrauding clients in his sports betting firm in a federal court in New York.
Zeidman and his co-defendants made fraudulent claims between 2004 and 2020 that they had "insider knowledge" about sporting events, including "privileged" information regarding player ailments, "dirty referees," and "fixed" games, when in fact they didn't.
Prosecutors claim that they received almost $25 million in "exorbitant" fees from clients in exchange for information that "was either fictitious or obtained from an internet search."
"The Proposition of No Risk"
The organization promoted their services on national radio and utilized names like "Ray Palmer Group" and "Gordon Howard Global" that were meant to sound like respectable investment firms.
According to court filings, potential investors claimed that the group received exclusive information from doctors regarding player ailments and briefings from television executives on allegedly planned game outcomes, which made sports betting a "low or no-risk proposition."
Zeidman first claimed his innocence before being taken into custody in Florida on May 25, 2022. Authorities "took all my money and they seem upset that I won't plead to things I haven't done," he said in an interview with PokerNews.
“In the words of [German philosopher Friedrich] Nietzsche, ‘Everything the state says is a lie and everything it has it has stolen,’” he proclaimed.
However, Zeidman was the one who was lying and stealing, according to his victims, who informed Homeland Security about his plot. His self-description on PokerNews as "an individual with the highest level of morals and integrity" is a far cry from that.
‘Outright Lies’
“Sports bettors sought Cory Zeidman’s advice before gambling their money — but it was Zeidman himself who was scoring big through his deceptive practices, outright lies, and high-pressure tactics that exploited unsuspecting clients,” special agent Charles Walker of Homeland Security in New York said in a news release that accompanied Zeidman’s arrest.
Over a 25-year poker career, Zeidman has amassed approximately $700,000 in gross tournament winnings, according to the Hendon Mob database. In 2012, he won the World Series of Poker in seven-card stud. His claim to have slow-rolled Jennifer Harman with a straight flush against her full house at the 2005 WSOP Main Event may have made him most famous prior to that.