Last month, Aria High Roller regular Seyed Reza Ali Fazeli got indicted over a $6.2 million Super Bowl and World Cup ticket scam, which involved obtaining huge sums of money from investors meant to buy World Cup and Super Bowl tickets, but instead he used the cash to fund his lavish gambling and personal lifestyle.
Sure there were a few notable victims mentioned before, including Republican donor Mel Sembler and his family who shelled out $5 million to Fazeli but in the end received nothing from their investment, but another set of victims have sprung up, and this time, renowned people straight from the poker world itself.
Poker Hall of Fame members Erik Seidel and John Juanda as well as poker player Zachary Clark, lost a total sum of $1,300,000 in Fazeli's Super Bowl ticket scam through his ticketing company, Summit Entertainment Group. Like others, they were duped into believing that the funds they gave were going to be used to purchase tickets to the 2017 NFL Super Bowl. Juanda invested $300,000, whereas Seidel and Zach shelled out $500,000 each.
This is not really the first time that Fazeli had been accused of running a scam involving tickets on sporting events. In 2016, a judge ruled against him in a long-standing case on tickets for the 2006 Soccer World Cup in Germany.
Another lawsuit is slammed on Fazeli, and this time it's coming from the casinos. Aria is suing Fazeli for unpaid casino markers after the casino extended him credit 34 times. Fazeli owed Aria casino $2.1 million but he only paid $1 million. Additionally, the Bellagio claims Fazeli owed them $500,000 for markers issued to him in January 2017.
Fazeli was indicted on two felony counts of wire fraud on March 15, 2018. However, Fazeli pleaded not guilty at the federal court in California, and will be tried in May.
If found guilty, the two felony counts of wire fraud alone comes with a 20-year jail sentence each, so this means he can potentially be behind bars for 40 years.
Source:
https://www.cardplayer.com/poker-news/22702-poker-hall-of-famers-burned-for-800k-in-super-bowl-ticket-ponzi-scheme-lawsuit-says
