The sole woman who was indicted in the NBA poker scandal has been accused by her former landlord of destroying her New York apartment and failing to pay $8,000 in rent—the landlord claims he was eventually forced to evict her from the dwelling.
Sophia “Pookie” Wei, 40, is one of 31 suspects who stand accused of orchestrating “criminal schemes to rig illegal poker games” that defrauded participants out of at least $7 million, according to the indictment, which was unsealed Oct. 23.
Among the others named in the document are several members of known organized crime families, including the Bonanno, Gambino, and Genovese families, as well as Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups.
Authorities say that these rigged games first started in 2019 and took place in a wide variety of locations across the U.S., including New York City, East Hampton, and New York state.
Now, Wei’s former landlord, Ashley Scharge, has shed some light on her lifestyle during that time, in an interview with the New York Post—painting an unpleasant picture of a woman he describes as “arrogant,” “nasty,” and a “pain in the a–,” who he claims destroyed his property and failed to pay her rent.
According to Scharge, Wei resided in his home in Queens, NY, for 10 years, remaining in the property even after she and her husband split just three months into their lease.
“She was … nasty, b—-y, what else? Arrogant,” Scharge said when asked about his former tenant, adding that she “hung out with a lot of sleazy guys” while living in his home.
He noted that Wei ultimately stopped paying her rent—despite flaunting evidence of what appeared to be a very excessive lifestyle, including a Mercedes SUV and designer clothing, which Scharge described as leaving “no room for imagination.”
“She’d say, ‘I don’t have [my rent].’ That was it. She owes me $8,000, but I have no idea where she lives,” he alleged. “She wore a lot of expensive clothes. She drove a Mercedes SUV. I knew something was up. She couldn’t pay her rent, but she drove a Mercedes.”
Scharge said he kicked Wei out of the property in September 2022, at which point he discovered it had been “destroyed” during her tenancy.
After she left, he claimed he found that she had painted a topless portrait of herself on one of the walls, left piles of “expensive stuff” around the home, and had converted one of the closets into a filming room, complete with “fancy studio lights.”
Images obtained by the Post showed the portrait in question, as well as boxes filled with belongings piled high throughout Wei’s former apartment.
Scharge said he has considered hiring a private investigator to track Wei down but decided it would be too expensive—although, he had some blunt words for his former tenant.
“I hope she goes to jail,” he said. “I know I’m never going to get my money back, so jail is the next best thing.”
According to property records, Scharge owns a multifamily dwelling in the Bayside neighborhood of Queens, which includes a three-bedroom, two-bathroom duplex apartment that was most recently listed on the rental market for $3,000 a month.
Scharge also appears to have flirted with the idea of selling the property, with records indicating that it was put on the market for $2.2 million in November 2024.
A previous listing for the rental apartment describes it as a “spacious” home that was in “excellent” condition, with the description touting its proximity to the Bay Terrace shopping mall.
It is unclear where Wei moved after she was evicted by Scharge.
Wei appeared in a Brooklyn federal court on Oct. 23, when she pled not guilty to wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy charges, before being released to home detention on a $100,000 bond.
She made no comment to waiting reporters and photographers as she left the court, wearing a grey hoodie with a “World Series of Poker” logo emblazoned across the front.
Her arraignment came after a two-year investigation by the FBI, which uncovered two alleged illegal gambling rings with ties to the NBA.
The first, “Operation Royal Flush,” focused on the poker games, which authorities said included several NBA players in order to lend them a more high-end, professional feel.
“As alleged, members and associates of organized crime families fixed illegal poker games as part of a highly sophisticated and lucrative fraud scheme to cheat victims out of millions of dollars and conspired with others to perpetrate their frauds,” United States Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. said in a statement.
“Well-known former NBA players and former professional athletes, acted as ‘Face Cards’ to lure unsuspecting victims to high-stakes poker games, where they were then at the mercy of concealed technology, including rigged shuffling machines and specially designed contacts lenses and sunglasses to read the backs of playing cards, which ensured that the victims would lose big. Today’s indictment and arrests sounds the final buzzer for these cheaters.”
