NY couple accused of ‘sham’ wedding slammed in court for ‘scaley schemes of deception’

A car-dealership heiress accused of faking her lavish Utah wedding ceremony — and the ex who purportedly believed the union was legal — were slammed by an upstate New York judge for “significant credibility issues.”

Legal battles between Andi Potamkin, whose family founded Manhattan’s Potamkin Auto Group, and her former love, William Jordan Blackmore, have stretched from Brooklyn to Utah to Ulster County, where the two are fighting over their assets, including a fur-covered, $31,500 piece of furniture known as the “Beast Chair,” and an 80-acre plot intended for their dream home.

Potamkin allegedly convinced the friend officiating their 2015 nuptials to skip becoming ordained, claiming she and Blackmore planned to legalize their union later on in New York — but Blackmore claims he thought the union was legal, and sued her years later when she dumped him and told him their ceremony hadn’t been legit.

Andi Potamkin Jordan Blackmore weddingThe pair had a lavish ceremony in Utah.

Blackmore later dropped his case. She then sued him in Ulster County, in December 2019, over their assets.

Potamkin’s lawyers pushed Judge Lisa M. Fisher for a quick decision in the Hudson Valley case — which resulted in a scathing July 7 opinion from the judge, who said Potamkin’s ever-changing positions suggest she’s committed perjury and questions her “competence to understand what an oath is.”

“There are numerous … instances in the record where she admits to being married or denies being married, which all appear to be wielded however it fits her present purpose. … This court will not entertain flagrant abuses of the privilege to swear under oath,” Fisher wrote.

Andi Potamkin, Jordan BlackmoreThe pair are now fighting over their assets, which include a $31,500 piece of furniture.Paul Bruinooge/Patrick McMullan

The various disputes between Potamkin and Blackmore have been “cloaked in convoluted allegations and scaley schemes of deception,” and include “outrageous levels of issues of fact and credibility” which can only be resolved during a trial, the judge said.

Potamkin and her lawyers don’t even seem to realize she’s opened herself up to a perjury allegation based on her changing position about the veracity of the wedding, noted Fisher, who pointed out Potamkin and Blackmore filed their 2015 tax return jointly as a married couple.

“Filing a false tax return is both a state and federal crime. [Potamkin] is contending that she knew all along that the parties were not married,” according to the judge’s decision rejecting a fast resolution to the property dispute.

Blackmore is also accused by the judge for his “inconsistent pleadings,” calling them “equally dubious.”