She was an alleged degenerate gambler \u2026 and tenant.<\/p>\n
The lone woman tangled in the explosive NBA gambling scandal<\/a> is $8,000 in the hole with her fuming former Queens landlord \u2014 who kicked the \u201cpain in the ass\u201d to the curb \u2014 and boldly strutted out of Brooklyn federal court sporting a poker championship sweatshirt.<\/p>\n Sophia \u201cPookie\u201d Wei, 40, was slapped with wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy charges Thursday as the FBI rounded up 31 suspects \u2014 from NBA ballers to New York Mafia honchos<\/a> \u2014 accused of rigging poker games that conned high-rollers out of $7 million for several years, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n Sophia Wei brazenly strutted out of Brooklyn Federal Courthouse Thursday wearing a gray sweatshirt with the \u201cWorld Series of Poker\u201d logo. Paul Martinka<\/p>\n Even after cashing in as part of the scheme\u2019s \u201ccheating teams,\u201d<\/a> the accused swindler still stiffed her Bayside landlord, who evicted her in September 2022 for dodging rent and ripped Wei as a \u201cpain in the ass\u201d who trashed the apartment \u2014 even painting a naked self-portrait on the wall.<\/p>\n Ashley Scharge didn\u2019t mince words when asked about his former deadbeat tenant\u2019s role in the alleged con.<\/p>\n \u201cI hope she goes to jail,\u201d the 66-year-old told The Post Thursday afternoon. <\/p>\n \u201cI know I\u2019m never going to get my money back, so jail is the next best thing.\u201d<\/p>\n The furious landlord added that the corrupt lodger had lived in the apartment for roughly 10 years, often alone after her husband bolted just three months in.<\/p>\n \u201cShe was a pain in the ass \u2014 nasty, bitchy, what else? Arrogant,\u201d he charged.<\/p>\n \u201cShe hung out with a lot of sleazy guys.\u201d<\/p>\n Ashley Scharge was the Queens landlord of Sophia Wei who allegedly left the rented apartment a wreck. Reuven Fenton<\/p>\n The floor of a Queens apartment rented by Sophia Wei, leaving the landlord fuming. Ashley Scharge<\/p>\n Wei painted a naked self-portrait on the wall. Ashley Scharge<\/p>\n The furious landlord added that the corrupt lodger had lived in the apartment for roughly 10 years, often alone after her husband bolted just three months in. Ashley Scharge<\/p>\n Then she stopped paying rent \u2014 all while cruising around in a Mercedes SUV and decked out in flamboyant, designer outfits. <\/p>\n \u201cThe kind of stuff that left no room for imagination,\u201d the ex-landlord recalled.<\/p>\n \u201cShe\u2019d say, \u2018I don\u2019t have it.\u2019 That was it. She owes me $8,000, but I have no idea where she lives,\u201d Scharge said, adding that he wanted to hire a private investigator to track her down, but it was too costly.<\/p>\n \u201cShe wore a lot of expensive clothes. She drove a Mercedes SUV. I knew something was up. She couldn\u2019t pay her rent but she drove a Mercedes.\u201d<\/p>\n When Scharge finally booted the alleged con artist, he recalled being stunned by the wrecked apartment and the pile of \u201cexpensive stuff\u201d his sloppy former tenant had left behind.<\/p>\n Wei stopped paying rent \u2014 all while cruising around in a Mercedes SUV and decked out in flamboyant, designer outfits.<\/p>\n Sophia \u201cPookie\u201d Wei pictured playing poker with Chauncey Billups and Saul Becher in 2019. Obtained by NYPost<\/p>\n \u201cI went up there after I kicked her out,\u201d Scharge said. \u201cShe\u2019d destroyed the place.\u201d<\/p>\n He said Wei painted a picture of herself topless on the wall and had turned one of her closets into \u201cone of these video rooms.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cI thought she was making movies. She had fancy studio lights. She owned a cable box, which she wasn\u2019t allowed to do,\u201d the lessor said. <\/p>\n Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups, Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier and former Cleveland Cavaliers\u2019 guard Damon Jones were indicted in the scheme. AP<\/p>\n Mobsters Anthony Santoro (aka Skinny), Vito Badamo and Ernest Aiello at their arraignment. New York Post<\/p>\n Hall of Famer Chauncey Billups is the head coach for the Portland Trail Blazers. Getty Images<\/p>\n \u201cShe left a lot of stuff \u2014 she got out of here quick because I had an order to throw her out.\u201d<\/p>\n Wei was among 31 people nabbed in a sprawling backroom poker scheme<\/a>, linked to NBA players Chauncey Billups, \u201cScary\u201d Terry Rozier and Damon Jones, federal prosecutors said.<\/p>\n The con allegedly dates back to at least 2019, with many of the high-stakes games taking place in the heart of New York City and involving Big Apple mobsters<\/a> from the Lucchese, Genovese, Gambino La Cosa Nostra and Bonanno crime families, according to the federal indictment.<\/a><\/p>\n Wei was blasted as sloppy and a \u201cpain in the ass\u201d tenant by her former Queens landlord. LP Media<\/p>\n Prosecutors say other games were held in Manhattan, the Hamptons, Las Vegas and Miami.<\/p>\n Wei was previously identified in a 2019 picture at a card table alongside Billups, 49, and professional poker player Saul Becher, who was also indicted.<\/p>\n The alleged fraudster, clad in a gray World Series of Poker sweatshirt with her black hair pulled into a ponytail and a silver box in tow, pleaded not guilty at her arraignment in Brooklyn federal court Thursday afternoon.<\/p>\n She was released to home detention on $100,000 bail and has until Wednesday to find two sureties to cover the bond.<\/p>\n Wei declined to comment on her way out of the courtroom.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"She was an alleged degenerate gambler \u2026 and tenant. The lone woman tangled in the explosive NBA gambling…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14807,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[68,5970,57,6114,10378,9,24,55,54,56,10692,10664,10693,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-14806","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-exclusive","9":"tag-fbi","10":"tag-metro","11":"tag-nba-betting","12":"tag-nba-gambling-scandal-2025","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-new-york-city","15":"tag-new-york-city-headlines","16":"tag-new-york-city-news","17":"tag-ny","18":"tag-organized-crime","19":"tag-poker","20":"tag-scams","21":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14806\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}