She was an alleged degenerate gambler … and tenant.
The lone lady tangled within the explosive NBA playing scandal is $8,000 within the gap along with her fuming former Queens landlord — who kicked the “ache within the ass” to the curb — and boldly strutted out of Brooklyn federal court docket sporting a poker championship sweatshirt.
Sophia “Pookie” Wei, 40, was slapped with wire fraud and cash laundering conspiracy expenses Thursday because the FBI rounded up 31 suspects — from NBA ballers to New York Mafia honchos — accused of rigging poker video games that conned high-rollers out of $7 million for a number of years, prosecutors mentioned.
Even after cashing in as a part of the scheme’s “dishonest groups,” the accused swindler nonetheless stiffed her Bayside landlord, who evicted her in September 2022 for dodging hire and ripped Wei as a “ache within the ass” who trashed the residence — even portray a unadorned self-portrait on the wall.
Ashley Scharge didn’t mince phrases when requested about his former deadbeat tenant’s position within the alleged con.
“I hope she goes to jail,” the 66-year-old advised The Publish Thursday afternoon.
“I do know I’m by no means going to get my a reimbursement, so jail is the subsequent smartest thing.”
The livid landlord added that the corrupt lodger had lived within the residence for roughly 10 years, typically alone after her husband bolted simply three months in.
“She was a ache within the ass — nasty, bitchy, what else? Smug,” he charged.
“She frolicked with loads of sleazy guys.”
Then she stopped paying hire — all whereas cruising round in a Mercedes SUV and decked out in flamboyant, designer outfits.
“The type of stuff that left no room for creativeness,” the ex-landlord recalled.
“She’d say, ‘I don’t have it.’ That was it. She owes me $8,000, however I do not know the place she lives,” Scharge mentioned, including that he wished to rent a non-public investigator to trace her down, however it was too pricey.
“She wore loads of costly garments. She drove a Mercedes SUV. I knew one thing was up. She couldn’t pay her hire however she drove a Mercedes.”
When Scharge lastly booted the alleged con artist, he recalled being shocked by the wrecked residence and the pile of “costly stuff” his sloppy former tenant had left behind.
“I went up there after I kicked her out,” Scharge mentioned. “She’d destroyed the place.”
He mentioned Wei painted an image of herself topless on the wall and had turned certainly one of her closets into “certainly one of these video rooms.”
“I believed she was making motion pictures. She had fancy studio lights. She owned a cable field, which she wasn’t allowed to do,” the lessor mentioned.
“She left loads of stuff — she acquired out of right here fast as a result of I had an order to throw her out.”
Wei was amongst 31 individuals nabbed in a sprawling backroom poker scheme, linked to NBA gamers Chauncey Billups, “Scary” Terry Rozier and Damon Jones, federal prosecutors mentioned.
The con allegedly dates again to not less than 2019, with lots of the high-stakes video games going down within the coronary heart of New York Metropolis and involving Massive Apple mobsters from the Lucchese, Genovese, Gambino La Cosa Nostra and Bonanno crime households, in accordance with the federal indictment.
Prosecutors say different video games have been held in Manhattan, the Hamptons, Las Vegas and Miami.
Wei was beforehand recognized in a 2019 image at a card desk alongside Billups, 49, {and professional} poker participant Saul Becher, who was additionally indicted.
The alleged fraudster, clad in a grey World Collection of Poker sweatshirt along with her black hair pulled right into a ponytail and a silver field in tow, pleaded not responsible at her arraignment in Brooklyn federal court docket Thursday afternoon.
She was launched to dwelling detention on $100,000 bail and has till Wednesday to seek out two sureties to cowl the bond.
Wei declined to touch upon her means out of the courtroom.
