22Q Foundation Ripped Off? Mason Malmuth Was Right Todd Witteles Was Wrong

Mason Malmuth and Todd Witteles butted heads. Here’s what happened. When I first broke the story about John Sepulveda, aka JohnnySep, aka Jasep, founder of Vegas Poker Radio Forum, it was in response to the lies, threats and harassment he was directing towards me.

He kept spreading lies about me so I revealed the truth about Jasep. I won that battle after I exposed John Sepulveda as a convicted felon, liar, cyber bully and scam artist.

However as I took JohnnySep to the woodshed, the extent of his lies, scams and frauds just exploded. It now seems my take on JohnnySep was spot on in regards to almost every project this character started.

His BAPs were just mini Ponzi schemes to fleece his investors, his claims of ownership and overhead for Vegas Poker Radio were all lies and saddest of all it now looks like John Sepulveda scammed the 22Q Foundation kids during his Ironman 22Q Charity Marathon Broadcast promoted by VPR and Poker Fraud Alert.

The 22Q Foundation is a legitimate and worthy charity. You can learn more about it at their website 22Q.org. However it appears Jasep’s radio fundraiser was a scam to steal money members of the poker community thought they were donating to help deserving children.

Sepulveda lined up an impressive guest list for his Ironman charity podcast last September:

Daniel Negreanu

Sheila Kambin (22Q Rep)

Josh Arieh (Poker Pro)

Norman Chad (ESPN Commentator)

Ryan Dempster (MLB Superstar – Texas Rangers)

Shannon Shorr (Poker Pro)

Jared Tendler (Mindset Expert)

Jamie Gold (WSOP Champion)

Gavin Griffin (Poker Pro)

Michele Breedlove (22Q)

Dusty Schmidt (Poker Pro)

Kevmath (Internet Superstar)

Matt Savage (WPT Tournament Director)

Christina Lindley (Poker Player, Model)

Greg Raymer (WSOP Champion)

Jonathon Little (Poker Pro)

Tony G (Poker Pro, Olympic Basketball)

Richard Roeper (Movie Critic / Writer)

Greg “FBT” Mueller (Poker Pro)

Andy Frankenberger (Poker Pro)

Chris Moneymaker (WSOP Champion)

Victor Ramdin (Poker Pro)

David Plastik (Poker Pro)

Asian Spa (#Truthspeaker)

Sadly, it seems all these good folks who gave their time and support to a worthy organization, 22Q org, were deceived by John Sepulveda.

Sepulveda set up a donate to 22Q Foundation button on Vegas Poker Radio. Those funds went directly to the charity. However, Sepulveda also set up a temporary charity poker room on his website to raise money for kids with 22Q Deletion Syndrome.

Sepulveda controlled all the money donated from the charity online poker room. He controlled the rake, the fees and all the cash used there because 99% of the players graciously turned over their winnings to the charity. He also controlled all the donations that were directly sent to his account.

Sepulveda claimed the charity poker room pulled in $3,000 but no one knows the true amount because only Johnny Sep ran the poker software. It could have been more.

From what I’ve learned the 22Q Foundation never received that money. In a Skype chat with Chinamaniac Sepulveda said he was meeting with a man from 22Q to hand over the check. Here’s what he wrote:

[9/19/2012 11:43:12 AM] John Sep: i have a bank draft for them, I am meeting the guy this weekend

Sepulveda lived in Rhode Island. There was no person from 22Q Foundation authorized to accept such a check in Rhode Island or any neighboring states.

Preliminary research by Joe Uccello whose wife was on the board of directors at 22Q and who was the man Sepulveda initially approached about doing a “charity” fundraiser has so far not found any such check received by 22Q.

We do know that Sepulveda took a trip to Atlantic City the day after the Ironman charity podcast to play poker at the Borgata.

As Sepulveda made plans for his “fundraiser”, Mason Malmuth and his Mods on Two Plus Two took much grief for not allowing it to be promoted on 2+2. Mason explained his company’s policy in a reasoned respectful post on Two Plus Two.

However Daniel Negreanu used his forum Full Contact Poker to lash out at Mason and his Mods with some very harsh criticism. In his article Steven Ruddock piled it on pretty thick too, calling the policy hypocritical.

We now know Mason Malmuth’s policy was the correct one while Todd Witteles’ policy of promoting his part-time podcast co-host’s fraudulent fundraiser was wrong. That’s significant because Todd appointed himself the Poker Fraud Alert Czar. He failed to alert anyone.

It would seem apologies are due Mason Malmuth and his Mods.

In researching Sepulveda’s dirty deeds one of the sources I corresponded with was John “Pikachar” Devine, a respected member of the poker community who hosts Low Limit Poker Radio.

I sent Pikachar the complete timeline of John Sepulveda’s felony fraud case so Pika could match it against some financial transactions he had with Sepulveda.

Devine discovered that transactions totaling $6000 fit perfectly into Jasep’s court dates and appearances for his felony fraud case. Jasep, who already had a criminal record, was feverishly trying to make restitution to the victim and the court in order to keep his ass out of jail.

Jasep conned Pikachar into buying a 20% stake of Vegas Poker Radio Forum for six grand. Soon after Jasep received a payment from Pika, low and behold the court and victim received restitution and Mr. Sepulveda squeaked by with a two year probation sentence.

Plus, the truth revealed Jasep was only a one third owner of VPR and never consulted with his partners that he was making this $6,000 deal with Pikachar. Jasep was overselling shares to VPR like Bugsy Siegel oversold shares to the Flamingo Hotel and Casino.

When corresponding with Pikachar I expressed my concern that Jasep stole money from the 22Q Foundation charity. It now seems quite clear that he did plus this conman expressed interest in starting a new radio fundraiser for victims of multiple sclerosis! The guy is heartless.

I was a guest on Pikachar’s Low Limit Poker Radio along with KevMath, JoeU and Bootsy Collins. Todd Witteles, Brandon Gerson and others also appeared on the broadcast. It was an important broadcast about the unfolding John Sepulveda scandal.

The show ran over five hours. It is Low Limit Poker Radio Episode #16 archived here.

Jasep’s partners and co-hosts at Vegas Poker Radio Forum, KevMath, Drexel and Chinamaniac were unwitting dupes in this mess. They are all solid respected members in the poker community and absolutely sickened by John Sepulveda’s actions.

While they are innocent some have said Todd Witteles, owner of Poker Fraud Alert, bears some responsibility for not sniffing out this scandal. After all Todd holds himself out to be a crusader against fraud in poker and there he was co-hosting a poker podcast part-time with a convicted felon, allowing him to offer staking shares, BAPs, on Poker Fraud Alert. Todd helped Jasep in every poker project he could dream up without first vetting the guy. Todd was fooled right along with everyone.

In my opinion it’s just another example of Todd Witteles asleep at the wheel as frauds and scams sometimes appear on poker sites he runs. I don’t believe Todd knew what his forum friend and part-time Poker Fraud Alert Radio guest co-host John Sepulveda was doing.

Witteles is the Inspector Clouseau of poker frauds. It’s actually quite funny that he runs a forum called Poker Fraud Alert. Todd Witteles once said this when vouching for conman and convicted thief Peter Falcone, aka PeterDC.

“I can vouch for peterdc, BTW. You can ship to him first with no worries. And I mean zero worries.” Todd Witteles

Todd often appears clueless when it comes to sniffing out frauds. Jasep might have thought that Witteles would be one of his easiest suckers. Todd had nothing to do with Jasep’s frauds but sadly his “fraud alert” radar fizzled out.

As one of Todd’s PFA members, Mulva, recently said about Poker Fraud Alert:

“…look around. we have a hackers forum here, people who tell us how to roll sportsbooks and restaurants. and the owner likes to mke crank phone calls pretending to be a lawyer. did i mention all the rampant racism…yeah…pokerfraudalert is serious fucking business, alright.”

Witteles, aka Dan Druff also recently praised one of his PFA members after that member bragged about stealing @ $1,100 from Poker Stars!

Witteles is no saint but in this case he just got played like so many others. Mason Malmuth’s policies are those of a wise businessman. Todd Witteles’ policies and forum TOS are just boilerplate drivel that he doesn’t follow and certainly doesn’t enforce.

It’s a very sad tale that continues to unfold. John Sepulveda is already on probation for his felony fraud conviction so if it turns out that he did steal his poker investors’ money, his partners’ money and worst of all, charity money raised and earmarked for the children of the 22Q Foundation, he could soon feel the long arm of the law.

The 22Q.org website. Direct donations can be made on their website here.

UPDATE: Mason Malmuth’s Generous Donation To 22Q Foundation.