https://nypost.com/2018/04/21/boyfr...utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_medium=SocialFlow
She was his lucky charm. But he was a wild card.
After returning from a January jaunt to Atlantic City, a New Jersey man went on a wild $500,000 winning streak at the Atlantic City baccarat tables with his girlfriend at his side, but after returning in January he stashed the cash and kicked her to the curb, she claims in a federal lawsuit.
“I never gambled before I met him,” Jasmine Zheng, 21, told The Post. “At first I was standing there watching him, after that we started gambling together.”
Her beau, longtime gambler Zhiwei Zheng, 26, would bet big, plunking down $2,000 a hand. He usually lost — until Jasmine (who isn’t related to Zhiwei) changed the game.
“Jasmine’s a good luck charm,” quipped her lawyer, James DeCristofaro.
“I kinda figured it out when I was watching,” she said.
The couple pooled their money and agreed to split any winnings, the suit says.
They started cashing in, and posted photos of towering stacks of benjamins and $5,000 chips on social media to prove it.
“Finally Made it!! 26 sittin’ on half a million!” Zhiwei boasted on Facebook.
In one photo, he flashes a Rolex Submariner. “$38,000 Rolex . . . Mine for Life,” he bragged.
When gambling, they would use Jasmine’s casino comp card, which meant the winnings — and taxes owed — were recorded in her name, she charges in Manhattan federal court papers.
They’d travel to and from Atlantic City’s boardwalk casinos, including Caesar’s Palace, on a $25-per-seat Chinatown bus, with their cash in Zhiwei’s backpack. His family, which owns a West New York, NJ, Chinese restaurant where the couple worked and met, held onto the spoils, but Jasmine didn’t mind.
“I was really trusting him at that time and I really loved him,” she said.
But the money “changed” her boyfriend, she said.
“He was, like, talking to other girls, flirting with other girls and I couldn’t handle that, and he said, ‘If you cannot handle that, then we just broke up,’ and he found another girlfriend right away,” she said.
The split left her reeling.
“It’s too scary for me. I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t sleep, I was crying all day. I was so hurt,” she said.
Neighbors described Zhiwei as a local tough in wrinkled clothes who turned poseur when he won big.
“I seen him about a month ago. He had a big chain, a Cuban Link, more than 100 grams . . . He says, ‘I got it from my girlfriend.’ He upgraded,” one neighbor said.
When Jasmine asked Zhiwei’s father to return her portion of their winnings so she could pay the taxes, he allegedly encouraged her to lie.
“You just tell them you lose all the money, then you don’t have to pay the tax for it,” she claims he told her.
She hasn’t seen a penny of the cash, said DeCristofaro, who called the breach of contract case “unreal.”
“What was this guy thinking?” he said.
Jasmine is seeking $500,000 in damages.
Zhiwei did not return messages. His family claimed not to understand English.
She was his lucky charm. But he was a wild card.
After returning from a January jaunt to Atlantic City, a New Jersey man went on a wild $500,000 winning streak at the Atlantic City baccarat tables with his girlfriend at his side, but after returning in January he stashed the cash and kicked her to the curb, she claims in a federal lawsuit.
“I never gambled before I met him,” Jasmine Zheng, 21, told The Post. “At first I was standing there watching him, after that we started gambling together.”
Her beau, longtime gambler Zhiwei Zheng, 26, would bet big, plunking down $2,000 a hand. He usually lost — until Jasmine (who isn’t related to Zhiwei) changed the game.
“Jasmine’s a good luck charm,” quipped her lawyer, James DeCristofaro.
“I kinda figured it out when I was watching,” she said.
The couple pooled their money and agreed to split any winnings, the suit says.
They started cashing in, and posted photos of towering stacks of benjamins and $5,000 chips on social media to prove it.
“Finally Made it!! 26 sittin’ on half a million!” Zhiwei boasted on Facebook.
In one photo, he flashes a Rolex Submariner. “$38,000 Rolex . . . Mine for Life,” he bragged.
When gambling, they would use Jasmine’s casino comp card, which meant the winnings — and taxes owed — were recorded in her name, she charges in Manhattan federal court papers.
They’d travel to and from Atlantic City’s boardwalk casinos, including Caesar’s Palace, on a $25-per-seat Chinatown bus, with their cash in Zhiwei’s backpack. His family, which owns a West New York, NJ, Chinese restaurant where the couple worked and met, held onto the spoils, but Jasmine didn’t mind.
“I was really trusting him at that time and I really loved him,” she said.
But the money “changed” her boyfriend, she said.
“He was, like, talking to other girls, flirting with other girls and I couldn’t handle that, and he said, ‘If you cannot handle that, then we just broke up,’ and he found another girlfriend right away,” she said.
The split left her reeling.
“It’s too scary for me. I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t sleep, I was crying all day. I was so hurt,” she said.
Neighbors described Zhiwei as a local tough in wrinkled clothes who turned poseur when he won big.
“I seen him about a month ago. He had a big chain, a Cuban Link, more than 100 grams . . . He says, ‘I got it from my girlfriend.’ He upgraded,” one neighbor said.
When Jasmine asked Zhiwei’s father to return her portion of their winnings so she could pay the taxes, he allegedly encouraged her to lie.
“You just tell them you lose all the money, then you don’t have to pay the tax for it,” she claims he told her.
She hasn’t seen a penny of the cash, said DeCristofaro, who called the breach of contract case “unreal.”
“What was this guy thinking?” he said.
Jasmine is seeking $500,000 in damages.
Zhiwei did not return messages. His family claimed not to understand English.