The cheating allegations that rocked the high stakes private poker games in California have taken another twist as French pro Arnaud Mattern this month launched a defamation lawsuit against Nik “Airball” Arcot and Wesley “Wes Side” Fei.
Arnaud Mattern was alleged by Hustler Casino Live regs Airball and Wesley to be the leader of a cheating gang that took private games in Yorba Linda for $3.1million using marked decks.
That was followed by alleged death threats aimed at Fei by one of the group, a convicted felon by the name of Shane Hennen…
They have been cheating in celebrities games for years, but nobody outed them because of lots of reason. One definitely the convicted FBI felon Shane liked to threaten people. They still have 15m debt from another private jet game not got paid yet and never gonna get paid, that’s… https://t.co/6zMvi4Go7q
— Dr.Hash“Wesley” (@CryptoApprenti1) December 19, 2023
Now, however, Wesley and Airball are in the firing line in a different way, after Mattern filed a slander/libel/defamation tort lawsuit in the Superior Court of Orange County, seeking more than $50,000 in damages.
Mattern took to the 2+2 forum to reveal the details:
“I have taken legal action for slander against Welsey Fei and Nik “Airball” Arcot. It took longer than I expected to get the complaint filed by the lawyers, and present this in front of a judge, but I’m glad that the procedure is now ongoing.
He added: “… Wesley Fei and Nik Arcot will be summoned in the upcoming days, and I hope they will be held fully accountable for their actions.
“Hopefully, this will set a precedent, and it will prevent losing players to randomly accuse anyone of wrongdoing, without any proof, just because they are losing (which seems to be rampant nowadays).”
Among the accusations Arnaud Mattern levies against Airball and Fei:
- “Defendants carefully crafted the Accusations to distract members of the poker community from their own malevolent actions, to get out of paying money they owe to the operators of the Series and to personally and professionally ruin Plaintiff.”
- “Defendant Wesley Fei is, in fact, a person cheating during poker matches and has admitted, inter alia, that Defendant Fei had used, or plans to use, “real time assistance” bots to cheat during online poker matches…”
Arnaud Mattern claims he wasn’t even in the country at the time much of the alleged cheating took place.
He claims that since the allegations were made public, he “has been unable to participate in certain poker games due to the damage to his reputation, has lost a significant source of income, has lost his reputation in his community…”
Arnaud Mattern is looking to reclaim “monetary damages in excess of $50,000”, “punitive damages”, and “attorneys’ fees and litigation expenses”.
So far,’ the only response to the lawsuit has been a tweet from Fei describing “cheater culture” …
What kind of cheater culture is this? Cheaters all sue victims after fail to life threaten me? @ArnaudMattern @nikairball pic.twitter.com/ljbNQCJJmH
— Dr.Hash“Wesley” (@CryptoApprenti1) February 10, 2024
The most famous poker defamation case was, of course, the Mike Postle lawsuit, whereby alleged cheater Postle sued multiple players and organisations in a $330,000,000 defamation claim.
That ended in disaster for Postle, eventually being withdrawn and Postle subsequently hit with successful legal expenses claims by both whistleblower Veronica Brill and Poker Fraud Alert founder, Todd Witteles.
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