Cory Zeidman, the 61-year-old professional poker, was arrested yesterday on charges of fraud and money laundering in a sports betting scheme. He was charged with receiving $25 million from victims who believed that Zeidman’s company had insider information on sports events and paid to receive this data to better their chances when betting on sports.
Zeidman’s organization ran radio ads, which were broadcast across the US, claiming that they had a “sophisticated white-collar approach to gathering sports information”.
As per the Homeland Security Investigations in New York: “As alleged, Zeidman preyed on individuals who were led to believe he had inside information that would lead them to easy money. In reality, he was selling nothing but lies and misinformation — bilking millions from victims along the way, leaving their lives in financial ruin and their bank accounts empty.”
Zeidman is a 2012 World Series of Poker bracelet winner.
He faces federal charges of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud, as well as conspiracy to commit money laundering in a scheme that spanned 16 years (2004 to 2020). His alleged victims paid a fee to obtain the so-called insider information and many of them lost their life savings.
Zeidman was the alleged head of the organization and used various aliases such as Richard Barnes and Ray Palmer over the years.