Gossip Column: Cory Zeidman Arrested on Charges of Fraud & Bill Perkins Makes Winning Bid of $15.3 Million For The Sugar Shack

Gossip Column: Cory Zeidman Arrested on Charges of Fraud & Bill Perkins Makes Winning Bid of $15.3 Million For The Sugar Shack
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  • Attreyee Khasnabis May 26, 2022
  • 4 Minutes Read

On May 25, former WSOP bracelet winner Cory Zeidman was arrested on charges of fraud and money laundering associated with a sports betting scheme that duped alleged victims of over $25 Million. Zeidman faces federal charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and mail fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering as part of the scheme that spanned from 2004 to 2020

Bill Perkins, a Houston-based entrepreneur, and poker enthusiast, made a winning bid of $15.3 Million for the most famous painting by Ernie Barnes, ‘The Sugar Shack,’ during Christie’s 20th-century auction on May 12.

 

Cory Zeidman Arrested on Charges of Fraud Related to $25 Million Sports Betting Scheme

Cory Zeidman, a former WSOP bracelet winner, was arrested on Wednesday on charges of fraud and money laundering related to a sports betting scheme that brought in more than $25 Million from alleged victims.

Cory Zeidman
Cory Zeidman

 

A resident of Boca Raton, Florida, Zeidman faces federal charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and mail fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering as part of the scheme that spanned from 2004 to 2020, according to a two-count indictment out of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York.

According to the federal indictment unsealed, the 61-year-old Zeidman and his unnamed co-conspirators received more than $25 Million in interstate wire transfers and private commercial carriers over 16 years from victims who were led to believe that the organization had privileged information that made betting on sporting events a no-risk proposition.

As part of the scheme, Zeidman and his co-conspirators placed misleading radio ads in various U.S. markets, claiming to have a “sophisticated white-collar approach to gathering sports information.” Individuals then had to pay a fee for the information. According to a statement from the Department of Justice, the information was “either fictitious or obtained from an internet search,” according to a statement from the Department of Justice.

The organization used names like Gordon Howard Global, Ray Palmer Group, and Grant Sports International. Zeidman himself allegedly used a variety of aliases, including names like Steve Nash, Mark Lewis, Joel Orenstein, and Rick Cash.

According to the Hendon Mob database, Zeidman is a long time professional poker player with $691,141 in live tournament earnings. His most significant success came in 2012 when he won the $1,500 Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo event at the World Series of Poker. Zeidman outlasted a field of 622 players, beating Chris Bjorin heads up to win his only career WSOP bracelet. He most recently cashed twice at the 2021 WSOP and recorded three tournament cashes in World Poker Tour side events in 2022.

The indictment alleges that Zeidman and his co-conspirators ran the scheme from January 2004 through March 2020.

 

Bill Perkins Makes Winning Bid of $15.3 Million For Ernie Barnes’ Painting

The unexpected star lot of last week’s Christie’s 20th-century auction was ‘The Sugar Shack,’ the most famous painting by Ernie Barnes. The 1976 work went for $15.3 Million, or an astonishing 76 times its high estimate of $200,000. The person making the winning bid was entrepreneur and poker enthusiast Bill Perkins.

Bill Perkins
Bill Perkins

 

“The secret’s out,” said Perkins, who fought off intense competition from another bidder at Christie’s evening sale on May 12, who fought off intense competition from another bidder at Christie’s evening sale.

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A post shared by Bill Perkins (@billperkins)

 

“You know those scenes in Westerns, or Pirates of the Caribbean, where everybody is fighting, and Johnny Depp just walks in and out with the treasure?” Perkins said. “That’s been me at every other auction.”

The collector has been buying online for the past few years and owns numerous other works by Barnes and examples by Charles White and John Biggers. He has been happily astounded at their relative affordability. “I’m walking away with the treasure while everybody is fighting over a Warhol or a Monet,” he added.

A celebration of Black joy, the painting depicts an enthusiastic crowd of men and women with elongated limbs, seemingly carried away by the music as they dance the night away.

“The painting transmits rhythm, so the experience is re-created in the person viewing it,” Barnes, who died in 2009, said in an interview with the Soul Museum. “To show that African Americans utilize rhythm as a way of resolving physical tension.”

Ernie Barnes
Ernie Barnes

 

Ahead of opening the lot, auctioneer Adrien Meyer warned that there were “22 telephones” poised to enter the fray, but the winning bidder, Perkins, made a memorable trip to New York from Houston to ensure he could bid in person.

Perkins won the day after a grueling 10 minutes of bidding—“it started, and it just went nuts,” Perkins told the New York Times, adding that when a rival bidder, identified by the Value as Dane Jensen of Los Angeles art advisory Gurr Johns, warned that he wouldn’t stop bidding, “I replied, ‘Then I’m going to make you pay.’”

Before the auction, the painting was in a private collection, having only had three owners since leaving the artist’s studio.

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