Florida Man Pleads Guilty to Sports Betting Fraud
Cory Zeidman scammed betters out of over $25 million by pretending to have inside information on sports events. He pleaded guilty on Dec. 4. Photo credit: X, @CoryZeidman.
The Fix is (Not) In
Zeidman was in a leading position in a company called the “Phoenix Organization,” according to the indictment. Zeidman and his co-conspirators advertised their sports betting program as a “sophisticated white-collar approach to gathering sports information,” going on to say that their style of betting was more like “investing” than “high-risk gambling.”
Zeidman and his co-conspirators told victims that some sporting events had “fixed” or “predetermined” outcomes, for which they had inside information, according to the indictment. Zeidman and his co-conspirators charged a fee in exchange for the fake insider information.
Between January 2004 and March 2020, Zeidman and his co-conspirators collected over $25 million in fees from the victims in the betting scheme by way of wire transfers and other commercial or private carriers, according to the indictment.
Zeidman instructed some victims to mail cash to select post offices in New York, urging others to deposit money into business accounts he had set up at various banks, including Citibank, SunTrust Bank, Bank of America, TD Bank, Ally Bank, First Citizens Bank and American Funds-Capital Bank and Trust, according to the indictment.
In addition to monetary fees collected by Zeidman and his co-conspirators, they also accepted property as payment.
Fake Names and Companies
Zeidman was indicted on May 15, 2022, on two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and mail fraud, according to a May 25, 2022, DOJ press release. Prosecutors in the release also revealed that Zeidman used fictitious names, including Rick Cash, Ray Palmer, Paul Knox, Walter Barr and Steve Nash, and fake company names, including Grant Sports International and Ray Palmer Group.
A Similar Scheme
Like another story covered by The Daily Muck, where Elijah A. Goshert, 48, from Pennsylvania, pleaded guilty on Oct. 17 to wire fraud in a sports betting scheme, many betters lost their life savings in the fraud scheme. In both cases, the victims believed that the fraudsters had a special “sophisticated computer algorithm,” as in Goshert’s case, or special knowledge of which events were predetermined, as in Zeidman’s case.
In both cases, the scammers pled guilty and are awaiting sentencing, according to Goshert’s coverage and Zeidman’s most recent DOJ press release. Both men face up to 20 years in prison. Zeidman will also pay $3.6 million in restitution and forfeitures.
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