Inside a Serial Fraudster’s Playbook: Clemency for a Con Man

[0:01] I have to be quiet. It's 3 a.m. My wife's asleep next to me, and I just can't help working on this script yet for another ongoing hour. It's unbelievable. But I feel like I need to say something to you before I forget it. This episode that you're going to hear is difficult for me because—I'm sorry. No, I'll be—just a minute. Because I've invested 80 hours of mind-bending research into it. And that's soaked in decades of experience and insight. And what makes this even more difficult for me is that this episode is going to be long. I mean, long. And it's a hell of a lot for you. But if I'm really going to help you see the scam, we're just going to have to get through it. We're just going to have to pull up our big boy pants and start marching through it. And for all of you who've said you're not a fan, when I do multi-episode shows, you might reevaluate that after the end of this. [1:18] But for those that know me by now, I like listeners to come away from every episode accidentally, I know, I know, accidentally learning something. And boy, oh boy, are you going to learn an incredible amount here over one listening session, two, maybe even three rounds of commuting. You've been warned. Now let's get to the good stuff. All right, honey. All right. Good night. [1:58] What you're about to hear is not a murder. It's a massacre. A financial massacre. I mean, this episode dives deep into how people like this can kill your finances and mortally wound your life. If you think I'm being over the top, wait till we get to the end. And then, you tell me if I was wrong. Recorded without his knowledge in August 2022. Quote, For two and a half years, I struggled, I finagled, and Ponzi'd and lied to people to cover us. And I was embarrassed, unquote. That's Elihu Weinstein admitting in his own words to running a Ponzi scheme. What makes this confession different from any other? When he recorded it, he'd already been convicted twice. He'd already stolen over $200 million. He'd already served eight years in federal prison. And he'd already received a presidential commutation from Donald Trump, the result of an intense lobbying campaign that reached the highest levels of government. [3:21] Hi, I'm Steve Rode, and this episode is going to break your brain. There's a recording made in August 22. Without his knowledge, on that recording, a twice-convicted Ponzi schemer, a man who had just received a presidential clemency, admits everything. And you'll hear exactly what he said, and you'll understand why it ended his freedom probably forever. But first, you need to understand how he got that clemency in the first place. You know, for 30 years, I've watched scammers take advantage of people. In fact, around the start of that time as a business owner, I sued a scammer who went on to rope in his childhood junior high school friends to grow his schemes and his victims. So I have watched how these things start small and grow into giant devastation. [4:26] By the end of this episode, I'll tell you who that scammer was and what just happened to him. His story and Weinstein's story have more in common than you might expect. And they're not the only ones. Over the years, I've chased and followed many others who repeated similar patterns. At this point, when I see a new scheme surface, quite frankly, it's less shocking than familiar. I recognize it for what it is As one convicted scammer explained On his way to federal prison, He personally emailed me a guest post Just for my readers That pulled back the curtain On how this happens and how it works Different day Same variation of a devious scam, These scams catch a lot of people And they might catch you or someone you love if you're not careful and don't listen closely. So, listen to this full episode and what you learn here could save you or someone you really care about. [5:41] These massive continued scams get complex and intertwined, and I don't know how the perpetrators keep all the lies together. They get so complicated that at some point, it's hard to keep it all straight in your head. But as you listen to this show, I don't want you to try to juggle it all. I want you to just sit back and listen to how these schemes rolled downhill like a freight train, unable to stop running over people, causing so much devastation on the way. I want you to listen to how people lost millions of dollars and listen to how others, people of trust, got suckered in to participate. And by the end of this episode, I think you'll feel the way I have felt over these many years. Angry, pissed off, sad, and resigned that scams like this and the financial losses of victims will continue to happen because here's an inconvenient truth you seldom here. White-collar crime in America pays, and it pays well. [7:01] This is the story of a man who apparently couldn't stop. [7:13] Presidential mercy is supposed to mean redemption A fresh start A second chance, When the President of the United States commutes your sins When he personally intervenes to let you out of jail early, What do you do with that gift? What would you do with that gift? Well, Eli Weinstein answered that question within 11 months. Before we go further, a note. This episode discusses allegations and convictions spanning more than 20 years. Some individuals mentioned have been convicted. Others have been accused but not charged. And still others may have been victims themselves. Where someone has been convicted, I say so, and where allegations remain unproven, I use language like, according to court filings or prosecutors alleged. Look, I'm not an attorney, and nothing in this episode should be construed as legal advice. The facts presented here are drawn from court documents, reliable news reporting, public records. Any opinions expressed are my own based on 30 years of investigating financial crime. Now, let's begin. [8:41] Eliyahu Weinstein, Eli to his friends, built his empire in Lakewood, New Jersey, home to one of the largest Orthodox Jewish communities in the United States, A place where business is done on handshakes Where rabbis vouch for character And where trust is the ultimate currency, Weinstein exploited all of it, This is a story about affinity fraud, and I'm going to tell you more about what that is in just a bit. It's also about presidential clemency and what happens when mercy is given to the merciless, about a man who, according to court documents, simply could not stop stealing from the people who believed in him. [9:35] Lakewood, New Jersey. about 70 miles south of Manhattan, a place where business is often done on just a handshake, where religious study and family comes first, and where community members support each other through charity and through loans and through shared investment opportunities. And it's where Eli Weinstein built his empire of lies. According to a 2009 Star-Ledger investigation, Weinstein started out as a used car salesman, a profession practically synonymous with fast talk and questionable deals. But he reinvented himself, and by the mid-2000s, according to court documents, Weinstein presented himself as a successful real estate investor. He claimed access to distressed properties at below market prices, properties with buyers already lined up. All you had to do was invest. And within weeks, sometimes days, you'd see returns of 20, 30, even 40%. It sounded too good to be true. [10:50] It was but when the man promising these returns prays at your synagogue when his children attend, the same private school with yours when respected rabbis vouch for his character. [11:07] You believe and here's what makes this case different from every other affinity fraud Weinstein didn't just steal from his community He used the community's most sacred institutions Its charities, its yeshivas Its congregations as instruments of the fraud, How do you steal through a synagogue? That question has an answer And it involves 69 charitable organizations And 140 million dollars, But that comes later First, you need to understand who trusted him And what that trust cost Federal prosecutors later described it this way According to U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman Quote One of the hallmarks of this particular fraud Was the extent to which the individual took advantage Of the trust he enjoyed in his own community unquote. And that trust would cost his victims everything. [12:24] Now, I promise to tell you what affinity fraud is. It's a term the Securities and Exchange Commission uses, and after 30 years of investigating financial crimes, I've come to believe it's the most devastating kind of fraud there is. Affinity fraud means a scammer who targets their own people, their own church, their own ethnic community, their own profession, their own social club. The con artist doesn't break in from outside They're already inside Already trusted And already vouched for by people you respect I mean, think about it If a stranger knocked on your door promising 40% returns on real estate, You'd naturally be suspicious You'd ask questions You'd want to check references, But when the guy making those promises sits next to you at services every Saturday, when your rabbi says he's a mensch, when your brother-in-law already invested and says it's legitimate, all those defenses crumble, they come down. [13:39] That's what makes affinity fraud so insidious. The scammer weaponizes the very thing that makes community strong. Trust, loyalty, shared identity. And he turns them into tools of theft. In case after case, in my years, I have watched victims blame themselves. How could I have been so stupid, they ask. But they weren't stupid. If anything, they were trusting. They were part of a community, and someone they had every reason to believe in used it against them. The Lakewood community Weinstein exploited wasn't naive. They were faithful, and that's a difference. And Weinstein knew exactly how to exploit that. [14:40] Among Weinstein's victims was a woman identified in court documents only as RBS. She was elderly, she was widowed, and she had dedicated her life to helping orphaned children in Israel. According to prosecutors, RBS gave Weinstein approximately $1,200,000, money she had inherited from her late husband. Money she intended to use for charitable work. And Weinstein promised her returns. He promised her safety. He promised her that her husband's legacy would grow. Instead, according to court documents, her money disappeared into the same maze of fake investments and shell companies that swallowed everyone else's. [15:32] An elderly widow, orphaned children who would never receive her help, a dead husband's legacy, stolen. But RBS wasn't alone. According to prosecutors, Weinstein targeted the vulnerable with particular focus, the elderly, the unsophisticated, people who trusted him because their rabbis trusted him, people who believed him because their friends believed him, In Jewish tradition, there are few sins greater than stealing from widows and orphans. The Torah specifically commands protection for the vulnerable. In the community Weinstein exploited, an Orthodox Jewish community of Lakewood held these values sacred. Weinstein knew those values. He was raised in them. He used them as camouflage. We've seen religion used to deflect blame before, like in the episode Betrayal of Justice, that you should probably listen to next. [16:46] And RBS? She lost everything. The inheritance, the charitable plans, the future she had imagined for children she would never meet. All of it. Gone. [17:02] But the widow wasn't his biggest victim. Harvey Wollinetz gave Weinstein $78 million based on a document that said Wollinetz owned a property on Staten Island. There was just one little problem. Weinstein had a second version of that same document with a different date that said he owned it. Both couldn't be real. The fraud began long before the $200 million Ponzi scheme that would send Weinstein to prison. March 2005 According to court documents cited by the Asbury Park Press, Weinstein supplied an investor named Harvey Woolenetz with an operating agreement. The document claimed Woolenetz was the managing partner of something called HDW 2005 Forest, LLC, a company supposedly formed to purchase and develop a property on Staten Island in New York. Woolenetz had loaned Weinstein $78 million. [18:15] There was just one problem. According to the lawsuit, Wolinetz later filed, Weinstein didn't control the LLC. He didn't even own the property. The document he'd given Wolinetz, the document with Wolinetz's signature dated March 30, 2005, was contradicted by another nearly identical document filed in court papers. That second document stated that Weinstein was the sole member and manager of the LLC. Same document, different facts, different dates. And according to attorney Ari Weisbrot, who represented Woolenet, Weinstein, quote, allegedly forged documents to convince Woolenets that Woolenets owned the property when he really didn't, unquote. Forged documents. This wasn't just a man making promises he couldn't keep. This wasn't just optimistic projections that didn't pan out. Eli Weinstein was fabricating legal documents, creating false paper trails to convince investors their money was safe when it wasn't. It wasn't. [19:39] By mid-2006, Wolinetz was getting nervous. For more than a year, he'd been trying to get solid information on what happened to his $78 million. He asked Weinstein for paperwork on the property, for proof of ownership, for something, anything, that showed where his money had gone. Weinstein's response wasn't to come clean. It was to dig deeper into the lie. In June 2006, Weinstein approached Woolenetz with a solution He told Woolenetz about a limited liability corporation he controlled Called Prospect Realty Associates Group Which supposedly owned a piece of property in East Orange, New Jersey And to show his good faith, Weinstein said He would assign all of his rights in the LLC to Woolenetz, Almost unbelievably Woolinettes agreed. And on June 6, 2006, both men signed a document to that effect. The problem? Weinstein didn't control that LLC either. He didn't even own that property. It was another lie built on top of the first lie, documented with more forged paperwork. [21:02] But Harvey Woolenetz wasn't the only victim. I mean, not by a long shot. According to the record of Hackensack, federal prosecutors would later describe a broader five-year scheme stretching from New Jersey to Florida to California to Israel, a global investment fraud with Weinstein at its center. [21:24] According to prosecutors cited in the record, Weinstein employed a range of techniques to defraud investors. He never owned many of the properties he told investors he did own. He sold both fake and real interests multiple times. I mean, think about that. It wasn't just fictitious properties. Sometimes the buildings were real. You could drive by and see them. You could look at them on street view. But Weinstein would sell ownership stakes to multiple investors. Five different people might each believe they owned 50% of the same building. The math just didn't add up, but victims weren't able to compare notes. Weinstein also drew up fraudulent leases to entice investors, making them appear that properties had substantial rental income when there actually was no tenant. He hid key information like zoning changes on investment properties that would dramatically reduce their value. He created shell companies, forged operating agreements, fabricated entire paper trails. By the time the FBI came knocking, Weinstein had been the subject of millions of dollars in court judgments, including a $34 million award filed against him in Pennsylvania just the week before his arrest. [22:54] Here's something that's always stuck with me about financial criminals like Eli Weinstein. It's the amount of work they put into their schemes. I mean, think about what I just described. Forged operating agreements with matching signatures, shell companies in multiple states, fraudulent leases for non-existent tenants, fake property records, documents backdated to match investor timelines, a paper trail sophisticated enough to fool people for years. That's not laziness. That's not taking the easy way out. That's an enormous amount of effort. [23:35] In 30 years of investigating financial criminals, I have seen this pattern over and over and over again. These aren't people who lack the ability to do legitimate work. These schemers and scammers are people who choose to put their intelligence and energy into fraud instead of into building something real. Weinstein started as a used car salesman, He could have built a legitimate business He could have become an actual real estate developer He clearly had the sales ability And he clearly had the organizational skills And he clearly had the charisma To get people to trust him With millions of dollars. [24:27] Instead, he used all of that talent To steal And here's what's particularly disturbing about the level of sophistication we're talking about. Selling fake properties is one kind of fraud. It's brazen, but it's also risky because the property doesn't exist. And eventually, someone's going to check. But selling real properties multiple times? That's a different level. That requires tracking who you've told what. And that requires keeping multiple sets of lies straight. That requires remembering which investor thinks they own what percentage of which building. [25:11] That's not a crime of desperation that's not someone who got in over their head and made bad choices that's a systematic enterprise that required daily effort to maintain the forged leases the hidden zoning changes the shell companies across multiple states every single one of those required work and it required planning and it required follow-through, Imagine what Eli Weinstein could have built if he put that same energy into legitimate business. Maybe, maybe he could have been a titan of industry instead of being a king of destruction. He built a house of cards, and when it collapsed, it buried everyone who trusted him. August 12, 2010, FBI agents arrived at Weinstein's Lakewood home. According to the record, they arrested him in the morning with a raid at his house A house that he shared with his wife and six children, Federal prosecutors at a hearing in Newark called him the mastermind of the scheme. [26:22] A U.S. magistrate judge ordered him detained without bail. The FBI was still searching for an accused partner. Vladimir Sifirov, 43, of Manalapan. Weinstein's defense attorney, Ephraim Savitt of New York, disputed the charges, calling it a civil matter. $200 million, victims across four states and multiple countries, forged documents, fake leases, properties sold multiple times. A civil matter? The court would disagree. The court held Weinstein on $10 million bail, one of the largest fraud bonds in New Jersey history. And then he posted it. And within months while awaiting trial, he launched a scheme to sell Facebook stock he didn't own to investors as far away as New Zealand. [27:28] August 2010, Eli Weinstein posted bail. The conditions were clear. No contact with alleged victims or potential witnesses. No new crimes. Report your whereabouts, meet with your attorneys, and prepare for trial. For most defendants facing two decades in federal prison, that would be enough to inspire caution, enough to keep your head down, enough to stop stealing. But Eli Weinstein was not most defendants Weinstein continued to swindle people Even while out on bail, It wasn't just the Facebook IPO scheme That was coming But even before that, according to the September 2011 filing Weinstein was approaching new victims with new deals, One victim identified in court papers only as MR was a Staten Island accountant. According to the Asbury Park Press, Weinstein approached MR between February and May of 2011 with, quote, several new deals, unquote. The pitch was audacious. Weinstein told MR that he could help fellow victims recoup their money, that he had connections. That he knew how to make things right. [28:55] And MR gave Weinstein approximately $101,000 for an insurance deal. Weinstein diverted that money not to the insurance deal, not to help victims recover losses. He used it to pay his lawyers. He used it to pay off other victims who were asking too many questions. And according to prosecutors, he used it to pay for his children's private school tuition. [29:32] Let that sink in. While awaiting trial for stealing $200 million from members of his own community, Eli Weinstein was stealing more money, and using it to send his kids to private school. MR also provided Weinstein $33,000 for a real estate deal, according to the same filing. Weinstein allegedly told MR that he'd have his money back in 48 hours. Guess what? He didn't get it back Not until he threatened to file fraud charges, And then There were the fake attorney meetings, Weinstein's bail conditions Required him to account for his whereabouts. [30:20] You see, when he traveled to New York City, he told court officials that he was meeting with his attorneys. Grewal alleged that Weinstein lied to court officials about these meetings and instead used the trips to meet with potential victims for new financial deals. He was using his own legal defense as cover for committing more crimes. And by the way, Grewal is with the U.S. Attorney's Office. and they asked the court to revoke Weinstein's bail. According to the Asbury Park Press, Grewal said his office would seek additional indictments, quote, within the next several weeks, unquote. The civil suits were piling up. Weinstein had been charged in numerous civil suits on two continents, with investors claiming he'd bilk them out of more than $300 million. $300 million! And the number kept growing. And what happened next would add years to Weinstein's sentence and prove beyond any doubt that Eli Weinstein could not stop himself from stealing, whether he wanted to or not, even when his freedom depended on it. [31:44] It's May 2012, and Facebook was about to go public. Remember that? The most anticipated IPO in years. Everyone wanted in. This was going to be a sure thing, a goldmine, including Eli Weinstein's victims. His bail conditions prohibited any monetary transactions over $1,000. He was supposed to be on lockdown financially. He ignored all of it. Weinstein, quote, hatched the Facebook ploy, unquote, to capitalize on the frenzy-sweeping financial markets. He and two co-conspirators, Aaron Muschel of Brooklyn and Alex Schleider, offered investors the chance to buy large blocks of hard-to-get Facebook shares before the company went public. U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman said, quote, the defendants took advantage of the buzz around the Facebook IPO to fleece unsuspecting investors, unquote. [32:51] Again, there was one problem. They had no connection to Facebook, no access to the stock, no way to deliver what they promised. They told investors the venture would be backed by a Park Avenue property worth $12 million. And you guessed it, that property did not exist. The scheme stretched across continents. One victim was an investor in New Zealand, and Weinstein reached out, said he had, quote, an interesting deal involving Facebook's IPO, unquote, and asked if the investor had an appetite. The victim transferred millions of dollars, routing funds through offshore accounts in the Channel Islands. The shares never materialized. The money vanished. What did Weinstein do with the stolen funds? Well... [33:55] He extended loans to a rabbi and his Brooklyn congregation in exchange for interests in life insurance policies, essentially placing bets on when congregants would die. He made a gold deal in Africa. He paid his lawyers. He made investments in other companies, and he wrote a $75,000 check to a Newark law firm, the firm representing him on the original Ponzi charge. Stolen money paying for his defense against charges of stealing money. The audacity is almost incomprehensible. But here's where it gets surreal. One victim discovered what was happening and decided to confront Weinstein directly with a recorder running. In February 2013, at the Marriott Glenpoint Hotel in Teaneck, New Jersey, On tape, Weinstein said, quote, You've got to trust me. It's going to be hard for you because I'm the bad guy. I'm the thief, unquote. I'm the bad guy? I'm the thief? His own words. [35:16] The victim wasn't buying it. According to the complaint, he demanded, where is it? And Weinstein's response, you made it. And the victim shot back, I never got it back. I didn't see my money. That recording would become evidence in federal court. Weinstein on tape admitting he was a thief while simultaneously trying to convince his victim to keep trusting him. [35:44] That's the psychology of a con man even when caught even when confronted even when calling himself the bad guy he's still working the angle still trying to manipulate still looking for a way out but maybe that's the fun part but the facebook scheme wasn't operating in isolation, according to the asbury park press weinstein and his accomplices were running multiple frauds simultaneously and using money from one to prop up another. In 2012, while the Facebook IPO scam was unraveling, Weinstein and co-conspirator Alex Schleiter launched another scheme. This one involved a condominium complex in Florida. They convinced two investors to purchase the complex at a discounted price, promising it would be immediately flipped at a substantial profit. [36:40] The victims wired $2,830,000 to an attorney trust account Money that was supposed to be held in escrow for the purchase But it wasn't You see, the defendants transferred most of the money out of that escrow account And gave approximately $1.8 million to the Facebook investors who were demanding returns, They were literally robbing Peter to pay Paul They were using new victims' money to keep old victims quiet. A house of cards where every card is someone's life savings. And to make it work, Weinstein needed people willing to play roles. [37:27] Aaron Glucksman, 41, of Brooklyn, was one of those people. He pleaded guilty. He'd sent emails to investors pretending to be an attorney handling the closing. He posed as the property manager. A fake attorney, a fake property manager. Fictional personas to steal real money. Glucksman got four years in federal prison. There's one more detail worth noting One of Weinstein's earlier deals Involved Solomon Dweck The infamous informant Behind the biggest corruption And money laundering sting In New Jersey history A scandal that brought down Mayors and rabbis And politicians across the state, Weinstein's world Was apparently filled with people Who would later become notorious, Fraudsters, informants, convicted criminals A web of connections stretching from Lakewood to New Zealand From Brooklyn congregations to offshore accounts in the Channel Islands, In September 2014, Weinstein pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering for the Facebook scheme Two more years were added to a sentence Twenty-two years became twenty-four. [38:57] In 30 years of investigating financial criminals, I've noticed something that rarely makes the headlines. The professionals who get pulled under. Ponzi schemers don't operate alone. They need accountants to make the books look legitimate. They need attorneys to draft the contracts. They need bankers to move the money. And sometimes, they need religious leaders to provide that seal of trust. But here's what I've also learned. Sometimes the professionals aren't professionals at all. They're people pretending to be professionals, playing roles in an elaborate theater of fraud. In case after case, I've watched people get sucked into these schemes. Sometimes they're real professionals who should absolutely know better. People with licenses, with reputations, with careers built over decades. And people that have a lot to lose. And sometimes they participate out of greed. Sometimes out of willful blindness. And sometimes I think just because they simply couldn't believe that the charming man sitting across from them was a predator. And sometimes they're just actors in a con man's play. [40:25] Fred Todd was a 61-year-old attorney, real offices in Seaside Heights and Los Angeles, a real law license he spent years earning. And according to the Asbury Park Press in September 2014, Todd pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and transacting in criminal proceeds. And his crime? Helping Weinstein sell Facebook shares that didn't exist to investors who trusted him. trusted him because he was a lawyer. Todd faced up to 20 years in prison and his law license gone, his reputation destroyed, his future defined by his association with Eli Weinstein. [41:17] Aaron Glucksmann wasn't a real attorney, but he played one in Weinstein's scheme. Glucksmann sent emails to investors pretending to be a lawyer, handling a real estate closing. He posed as a property manager. He created fictional personas to make the fraud feel legitimate, and Glucksmann got four years in federal prison for his performance. And then there were the rabbis. Weinstein extended loans to a rabbi in his Brooklyn congregation In exchange for interest in their life insurance policies A rabbi? A spiritual leader? Someone whose entire role is built on trust On guiding a community On moral authority, Whether the rabbi was a victim A willing participant Or something in between I don't know But the court documents don't say exactly what his intentions were. But his congregation's life insurance policies ended up as collateral in a scheme run by a man who had already stolen $200 million. That's what these predators do. They don't just take money. They corrupt institutions. They twist the things we trust, the law, the synagogue, even the simple act of receiving an email from a professional and turn them into tools of fraud. [42:46] Real attorneys, fake attorneys, rabbis, accountants, property managers who don't exist. The fraud doesn't just destroy the investors who hand over their savings. It destroys the professionals who enable it, whether they understood what they were doing or not. It corrupts the people who play roles in the scheme, even if those roles are fictional. And it poisons the institutions that communities depend on for guidance and trust. Weinstein walked away from the Facebook scheme With two extra years on his sentence, Fred Todd walked away with a felony conviction And a ruined life Aaron Glucksman walked away with four years in prison For pretending to be someone he wasn't And somewhere in Brooklyn A congregation discovered that their rabbi Had entangled their life insurance policies, With a convicted Ponzi schemer, That's the undertow of financial crime It pulls everyone down Real professionals, fake professionals It doesn't matter Once you're in Weinstein's orbit You're drowning. [43:57] February 25, 2014, U.S. District Court in Newark, New Jersey. Eli Weinstein stood before the judge to receive his sentence for the original Ponzi scheme, the $200 million fraud that had devastated his community. 22 years in federal prison. And then in December 2014, he was back in court for the Facebook scheme, the fraud he'd committed while out on bail. Two more years, 24 years total, and the judge ordered restitution $230 million. For eight years, that's where the story paused. During that time, his children grew up. A seventh child was born. While he was incarcerated, his community tried to move on. His victims waited for restitution payments that never came because there was no money to pay them. $230 million was gone. It was spent on properties, on lifestyle, on legal fees, on payouts to early investors. The way every Ponzi scheme works until it collapses. But where did the money actually go? And how did Weinstein hide it? [45:20] Remember that question from the beginning? How do you steal through a synagogue? Well, here's the answer. Attorney Ari Weisbrot, representing Harvey Wolinitz, claimed Weinstein had filtered approximately $140 million through charitable organizations. [45:44] 140 million dollars through 69 separate charities yeshivas congregations organizations supposedly dedicated to religious education and community support they were used as washing machines for stolen money weisbrot is quoted weinstein and his associates transferred well over $100 million to suspicious charities and corporations, some of which are owned and controlled by Weinstein's employees and cronies. [46:24] And then a lot of that money found its way back. The scheme worked like this. Weinstein would send millions to a charity, and then often the same day, that charity would send millions back to Weinstein, to companies he controlled, or to investors demanding their money. The Yeshiva Geta Law of Seagate in Brooklyn received three separate transfers, 2.2 million, 5.2 million, 3.95 million. And on each of those same days, the Yeshiva sent money back, 3.2 million, 2.1 million, $2.7 million, Same day transfers Money out, money back, Another charity received $6.9 million between June 4th and June 8th, 2007 And within days, Weinstein's lenders received $4.1 million back. [47:32] Congregation O.L. Elihu received $23.4 million, a single congregation that was formerly run by Rabbi Elihu Ben Haim, who had pleaded guilty to attempting to launder $1.5 million. Rabbis, yeshivas, congregations All touched by Weinstein's money All part of a trail Investigators would spend years trying to untangle, Weinstein's defense attorney, Gary Ginsberg Dismissed the allegations, Quote If I make a donation to a yeshiva That may be currently under indictment For having been involved in an alleged money laundering scheme Does that make me part of the scheme? No. If I take a loan from an institution that may have been indicted for money laundering and then pay that loan back, does that make me a money launderer? No. [48:36] He then went on to call the accusations scurrilous. But Weisbrot saw it differently. Quote, It is without dispute that Weinstein sent tens of millions of dollars to entities that he controlled, disguised as charities, and then filtered the money back to his own uses. Unquote. On the day of Weinstein's arrest, federal agents loaded boxes from his Lakewood home, Years of records, decades of transactions, and a paper trail, stretching across 69 charities and hundreds of millions of dollars. One of those charities named in early reports was Cars for Kids. They had a radio jingle that people remember. [49:27] 1-877-CARS-FOR-KIDS K-A-R-S, Cars for Kids 1-877-CARS4KIDS Donate your car today. [49:53] Though the charity later denied the allegations and a newspaper correction clarified, that the money flow was in the opposite direction than initially reported, but some charities quickly kicked donations back to the donors often within days and two religious charities became the focus of federal money laundry investigations in both new jersey and california, Weinstein took the impulse to do good The desire to help children The desire to support religious education And there's no other way to say it But he weaponized it, The money moved in circles It disappeared into a maze of contributions and purchases That investigators would spend years trying to untangle And by the time the government tried to recover it, Most of it was simply gone. [50:51] In Jewish tradition, there's a concept called teshuvah, repentance. True repentance, according to religious scholars, requires acknowledgement of wrongdoing, genuine remorse, and a commitment to change. During his years in prison, rabbis from Weinstein's community wrote letters on his behalf. According to one letter quoted in news reports From Rabbi Nakamdav Breyer, Weinstein has displayed deep remorse And broken-heartedly vows Never to repeat his past mistakes. [51:34] Other prominent leaders joined the effort And then there were political connections, Lobbyist Nick Muzzin reached out to Mark Meadows the White House Chief of Staff. Multiple members of Congress wrote letters, including Representative Jeff Van Drew, former Representative Bob Barr, former U.S. Attorney Brett Tolman, and Alan Dershowitz. You know that famous Harvard law professor with direct access to the president? Well, in December 2020, the New York Times reported, Dershowitz was, quote, Exploring Applying for a Pardon on Weinstein's Behalf Journalist Charles Stile reached out to Dershowitz directly. [52:23] Dershowitz's response was careful. Quote, I have not spoken to the president about a pardon or commutation. Unquote. Notice what he said and what he didn't. He didn't say he wasn't working on the case. He didn't say he hadn't communicated through intermediaries. He said he hadn't spoken to the president. And one month later, the lobbying campaign succeeded. The president commuted Weinstein's sentence And the White House statement listed Professor Alan Dershowitz among the supporters, Dershowitz later said the vast majority of his clemency cases were worked on for free For clients who'd refused to plead guilty, Clients who'd refused to plead guilty But Weinstein had pleaded guilty In 2013, he pleaded guilty to two counts of fraud and money laundering. And in 2015, while already serving his sentence, he pleaded guilty again to that Facebook IPO scheme that he conducted while on bail for the first one. He pleaded guilty twice. Twice. [53:42] So was Weinstein an exception, or was Dershowitz compensated? The public record doesn't say. I don't know. But the questions linger. All of these letters, all of the phone calls, all of these connections, you can imagine what happened. On January 19, 2021, the administration's last full day, the president commuted Eli Weinstein's sentence. After serving eight years of 24, he was set free By November, according to court documents He was running his third Ponzi scheme Under a fake name. [54:29] It's January 19th, 2021, the last full day of the presidential administration. In the final hours, 143 acts of clemency were issued, 73 pardons and 70 commutations. Steve Bannon, charged with fraud related to a border wall fundraising scheme, pardoned. Elliot Brody, who pleaded guilty to acting as an unregistered foreign agent, pardoned. Kwame Kilpatrick, the former Detroit mayor, convicted of racketeering and bribery, commuted. And Eli Weinstein, serving 24 years for a $200 million Ponzi scheme, commuted. The official White House statement explained why. According to the statement from the press secretary, quote, Mr. Weinstein is the father of seven children and a loving husband. He is currently serving his eighth year of a 24-year sentence for a real estate investment fraud, and he has maintained an exemplary prison history. Upon his release, he will have strong support from his community and members of his faith. Unquote. [55:49] A real estate investment fraud? Singular? The White House didn't mention the $200 million in losses, didn't mention the dozens of victims from two continents, didn't mention that Weinstein had pleaded guilty to two counts of fraud and money laundering, and they certainly didn't mention that while awaiting trial for that fraud, Weinstein had committed another one, the Facebook IPO scheme, and had two more years added to his sentence as a result. And that exemplary prison history well according to court documents from his third case that we haven't talked about yet weinstein later told his co-conspirators what he was actually doing during those years behind bars he bragged that he had conducted millions of dollars of business while in prison, and he ended up with substantial cash and assets in other people's names. [56:53] Millions of dollars of business, while incarcerated, while supposedly reformed, while the White House was preparing to call his prison record exemplary. And assets hidden in other people's names? While his victims were still waiting for $230 million in restitution that would never come? The statement also claimed the commutation was supported by, and I'm quoting directly, numerous victims who have written in support. [57:35] Seriously? I mean, think about that. Victims of a $200 million Ponzi scheme, writing letters asking for the man who stole their money to be released early? Were those letters genuine? I mean, were they coerced? Were they from community members who felt social pressure to forgive? The White House didn't say, and the letters have never been made public, as far as I'm aware. And here's something that raises even more questions According to federal court records There was another group of victims A group that apparently no one had considered When evaluating this clemency request, You see, in February 2009 More than a year before Weinstein Was even arrested on federal charges A group of plaintiffs led by a man, named Aaron Abacassiz was already winning a judgment against him. [58:38] $44,109,731.12 A judgment entered in the District of Delaware. That's a separate $44 million judgment from an earlier group of victims, people who had already proven their case in court, before the criminal prosecution even began. [59:01] The advocacy's plaintiffs included a dozen individuals and investment entities. Kenneth Beard, Esther and Jacob Blotch, Rob D. Lalano, Edward Friedman, Samuel Hart, companies called Cleon Apartments, and ARD2 Investments. These weren't the Wolanetz victims. These weren't the RBS victims. These were yet another set of people Weinstein had allegedly defrauded. [59:32] And when the White House issued its clemency statement, when it claimed numerous victims supported the commutation, did anyone ever check with the abacus victims? Because they were among the group. Did anyone verify the claim at all? Now, normally the office of the pardon attorney reviews clemency applications. When the FBI investigates, agents interview support letter writers. There's a five-year waiting period after sentence completion. Weinstein had served eight years of 24. Legal experts later called the process an informal and fairly chaotic White House operation. Who verified the claim of victim support? Who contacted the abacusis plaintiffs, still waiting for their $44 million judgment? Well, the answer is, apparently no one. [1:00:35] What we do know is who else supported the commutation. You know, the statement listed them. Former U.S. Attorney Brett Tolman, former Representative Bob Barr, Professor Alan Dershowitz, Representative Jeff Van Vreux, Jessica Jackson of the Reform Alliance. And according to news reports, Ivanka Trump, the president's daughter, had personally called Weinstein's family. And the reason for her involvement has never been explained. Attorneys, politicians, advocacy groups, religious organizations, the president's own daughter, an entire network of influential people all vouching for a man who had stolen a quarter of a billion dollars from members of his own community. The statement made no mention of the 230 million dollars in restitution that weinstein still owed his victims no mention of the charity money laundering allegations, no mention of the federal investigations in new jersey and california just a loving husband, and a real estate investment fraud. [1:01:51] The next morning, January 20th, 2021, Weinstein posted a video from somewhere in New Jersey. And according to news reports, he said, I want to thank the president himself for seeing the opportunity to help bring me back to my family and for granting me this clemency. Back to his family? Back to his community? Back to Lakewood? Not everyone was celebrating. Gerber Grawl, that attorney that I mentioned The then Attorney General of New Jersey, He was one of those original prosecutors Who built the case against Weinstein After years of work After watching Weinstein commit a second fraud While awaiting trial for the first After securing that 24-year sentence The man walked free with 16 years Still to serve and no restitution, Grewal's frustration boiled over that same day he blurted out, I'm disgusted. It's one huckster commuting the sentence of another. He was criticized for those words. I mean, he was called partisan. He was accused of sour grapes. But within 30 months. [1:03:12] He would be proven right. And Weinstein wasn't alone. In a case I covered in a previous episode, badges for sale, a Virginia sheriff named Scott Howard Jenkins was caught on FBI video selling law enforcement badges for cash. $5,000 for a basic badge, $25,000 for the premium package. Undercover agents recorded everything. A jury needed just over two hours to convict him on all counts. He was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison. And then days before his sentence began, Jenkins received a full presidential pardon Made the crime go away, But here's what makes the case mirror this one You see, only Jenkins got the pardon, James Metcalf, a decorated volunteer officer Who pleaded guilty and cooperated fully with prosecutors Still faces three years probation and $75,000 in fines. [1:04:21] Others who were caught that had paid for badges No pardons And they still face consequences And the man who created the corruption scheme Walked free, The people he corrupted still pay the price Does that sound familiar? Under his commutation terms Weinstein remained on supervised release He was required to report all income Assets and employment He still owed $230 million in restitution He was supposed to be monitored And watched And reformed. [1:05:03] What no one knew was that Weinstein was already planning his next scheme. And this time, he had learned from his mistakes. If you're listening to this episode and thinking, oh my gosh, this is a lot of information, you're right, it is. Three trials, hundreds of millions stolen, presidential clemency and victims still waiting for restitution more than a decade later. And I'm about to tell you it gets worse Can you believe that? [1:05:37] Don't try to keep track of every dollar, every name, every scheme. That's not what matters. What matters is the pattern. What matters is watching how a man like this one operates. How he slips through gaps. He exploits trust and reinvents himself again and again. And before we're done, I'm going to share advice from a serial scammer Named Damien Kutzner, On his way to federal prison He sent me a guest post For my other site A kind of confession about how the game really works, What he wrote is something Every listener needs to hear, Not just about Weinstein He didn't know him About all of them, But first, you need to understand what Weinstein did with his freedom So, stay with me Because what happens next Is why this story needed to be told. [1:06:44] It's November 2021 Less than 11 months after the presidential commutation A man named Mike Koenig Approached Christopher Anderson and Richard Curry, Owners of Tryon Management Group, a company that connected investors with opportunities. [1:07:05] Koenig had a pitch. He represented a company called Optimus Investments, Inc., and he promised access to scarce goods during times of crisis. I mean, think about it at that time in 2020, 2021. COVID-19 test kits and N95 masks desperately needed during the pandemic. Baby formula in critically short supply during the 2022 shortage first aid kits supposedly bound for wartime ukraine and products that people needed products that were hard to get, products that tugged at investors desire to do good while making money, Anderson and Curry brought in investors According to prosecutors, money flowed into Optimus Investments Over $35 million for more than 150 people The returns Koenig promised They never materialized And when investors asked questions, Koenig had answers though He produced purchase orders and invoices and shipping records and they all looked legit. [1:08:25] All of it was fake. And according to federal prosecutors, Weinstein knew it. Thousands of text messages recovered from a co-conspirator's phone show exactly how deliberate the deception was. [1:08:44] Because Weinstein was Koenig. And in one voice note captured in government filings, Weinstein discussed how to tell investors about the first aid kit deal. Alla and I have a side agreement. Alla and I made up to say something. Made up. Those were his words. In another message, I have never, ever said anything to the contrary of what he and I made up. [1:09:18] This wasn't confusion. This wasn't miscommunication. This was two men coordinating their lives and documenting it all. Anderson and Curry started getting nervous. I mean, something didn't add up. So they did what any business partner would do. They Googled him. And then they found out Mike Koenig didn't exist. But the man behind Optimus Investments did. Eli Weinstein, twice convicted Ponzi schemer, recently released on presidential commutation. the man who had stolen $200 million from his own community. Anderson and Curry now faced a choice. They had unknowingly helped a convicted fraudster steal from over 150 investors. They could come clean, or they could keep going. [1:10:26] They kept going they helped conceal weinstein's identity they continued raising money from investors who had no idea who was really behind the scheme but something had changed, you see anderson and curry now knew exactly who they were dealing with and eventually they would make a different choice they would start recording. [1:10:58] It's August 2022. Anderson and Curry made their choice. They began secretly recording their conversations with Weinstein. Or Koenig. What those recordings captured would become the centerpiece of the federal prosecution. This is what I told you about at the beginning of our journey here together. The recording that ended everything. I mean, listen to what the microphone captured. For two and a half years, I struggled. I finagled and ponzied and lied to people to cover us. And I was embarrassed. Embarrassed? Not ashamed? Not remorseful? Embarrassed? Like Weinstein had been caught doing something awkward at a dinner party. His own words, captured in a recording, no ambiguity about what he was admitting. [1:12:08] In another recording, according to court documents, Weinstein explained why he used the fake name. [1:12:16] There's another problem. We collectively did not tell everyone who I was. No one would ever give you a penny if they knew who I was. Because I have a bad reputation. Seriously. Bad reputation? That's how he described two federal fraud convictions and $200 million in stolen money? A bad reputation? And he wasn't just passively hiding. Thousands of text messages show Weinstein actively coaching others on how to maintain the deception. When a co-conspirator was about to speak with a potential victim's attorney, Weinstein sent urgent messages. Don't have any conversation with Richard before you talk to me. No conversation. Then a reminder. Mike Koenig. In another message captured in court filings. My name is Mike. Don't forget. And when the co-conspirator reported back about the call, he began his voice note the way Weinstein had instructed. Hi, Mike. [1:13:41] This wasn't a slip this wasn't a single lie that got out of control this was systemic, it was coordinated and it was an effort to deceive one text message at a time but the most damning recording came when weinstein discussed his hidden assets according to the courier news weinstein explained that he could not touch certain assets while on supervised release. Because he'd go to jail. And then the recording captured, I just told you something that no one in the world knows. Because I hid money. Get it? [1:14:30] I hid money. Get it? While his victims from the first scheme were still waiting for restitution, while $230 million remained unpaid, while people who had trusted him with their life savings had received nothing. He was bragging about hidden assets. And where did that hidden money actually go? Well, according to a sworn federal complaint, Weinstein used a co-conspirator named Shlomo Erez, an attorney, to divert at least $12 million of investor money from the Optimus bank accounts. Not for COVID test kits, no. Not the test kits investors were promised, no. Not for the baby formula, no. And not for Ukraine aid. Millions went towards a luxury penthouse apartment in Miami. Millions more went towards a purported land deal in Morocco. [1:15:39] A penthouse in Miami, a land deal in Morocco. While investors in New Jersey and beyond waited for returns on products that would never arrive. And there was more. According to the federal indictment, Weinstein was also a silent partner in a company called Saniton Plastic. The government alleged he used it with his co-conspirators to divert investor money and hide his business activities from the government and from his past victims. The very people still waiting for $230 million in restitution. [1:16:25] This wasn't careless this wasn't a scheme that got out of control according to prosecutors every layer was deliberate the fake name the attorney as a conduit the shell companies the international real estate and weinstein knew his co-conspirators knew what he was doing in an august 31 2022 meeting One of them secretly recorded the sessions. Weinstein made it plain to everyone in the room, including Erez. According to the sworn complaint, he said, quote, I finagled and ponzied and lied to people to cover us. Unquote. Cover us. Not just himself. Us. The government's position? Any communications between Arez and Weinstein about these transactions were not attorney-client privilege. They were evidence of ongoing fraud, because Weinstein's entire involvement in these business transactions, according to prosecutors, was in furtherance of crime. [1:17:45] And what did he do with the money from the third scheme, the one he ran after the presidential commutation? Well, according to court documents admitted to trial, Weinstein gave millions of dollars of investor money to others to gamble for him at casinos. He walked away with hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, cash he never reported to his probation officer. The court noted this gambling evidence. [1:18:16] It may be shocking to the jury, but ruled it admissible anyway, because as the judge wrote, quote, Rule 403 does not provide a shield for defendants who engage in outrageous acts, unquote. But gambling wasn't the only thing that he did with investor money. According to evidence presented at trial, Weinstein also invested in a stock market manipulation scheme in Turkey, a foreign stock scam with money that investors thought was going to buy baby formula and medical supplies. One of his co-conspirators confronted him in a voice message. According to court documents, the message said, quote, you gamble on things which is good, but you're gambling on a blank scam in Turkey. This stock market thing you know what it is it's manipulation unquote. [1:19:22] Weinstein's response according to court filings he said I listened and agree he knew it was a scam he knew it was manipulation and he did it anyway with money entrusted to him by people who thought they were helping Ukraine or buying scarce baby formula. [1:19:47] There's a moment in the secret recordings that tells you everything you need to know about how Eli Weinstein viewed his victims. According to the Courier News, in one conversation, Weinstein explained that he couldn't touch certain assets while on supervised release because he'd go to jail. He knew it. And then he boasted that I just told you something that no one in the world knows because I hid money, get it? I hid money. Get it? In 30 years of investigating financial criminals, I've learned one painful truth that victims rarely understand until it's too late. The bulk of the money is almost never recovered. When a Ponzi scheme collapses, when the FBI makes arrests, when the headlines announce $200 million fraud, But people assume that somewhere, somehow, that money still exists, that the courts will find it, that restitution will be ordered, and that justice means getting your life savings back. [1:21:02] It almost never works that way. Listening to Weinstein brag about hidden money reminds me of all the families and individuals who lost everything in the infamous Bernie Badoff Ponzi scheme. $65 billion with a B. $65 billion. Thousands of victims. Entire foundations wiped out. Retirement accounts evaporated overnight. people who thought they were set for life discovered they had nothing. Ironically, when Madoff was imprisoned, he sat in a federal facility not far from where I live. As a search and rescue pilot, I often flew over that facility. It's the Butner Federal Correctional Complex in North Carolina. And every time I passed overhead, I'd look down and I'd think, he's right there. The man who destroyed more lives than almost any financial criminal in history. He's right there, right below my wings. [1:22:10] And his victims? Most of them never recovered a fraction of what they lost. The money was gone. It was hidden, spent, and scattered across decades of fake returns that never existed in the first place. Financial criminals hide money the way a squirrel hides nuts. They bury it in places they think no one will ever look. Offshore accounts Shell companies Cryptocurrency wallets Real estate and relatives' names Jewelry, collectibles They scattered across dozens of hiding spots Knowing that even if investigators find some of it They won't find all of it, And they do this from the very beginning Not as an afterthought Not when they see the walls closing in From day one, they're planning. They're planning for the day when the scheme collapses, and they need something to come back to. [1:23:17] Weinstein owed his victims $200 million in restitution from his first conviction. By the time he was arrested for the third scheme, according to prosecutors, he still owed that money. Not a dime had been recovered. And here he was on tape, bragging about hidden assets. [1:23:40] I've seen this pattern in case after case after case the courts order millions in restitution, the victims wait years for checks that just never come and somewhere the fraudster has a nest egg buried waiting for the day he will get out of prison waiting for the statute of limitations to run and waiting for everyone to forget the victims of eli weinstein's first scheme lost everything. Their retirement savings, the college fund for the children, money they'd worked decades to accumulate, or money that they had inherited to do good. The court ordered $230 million in restitution, and the honest truth is they'll probably never see it. Because the truth The truth is, Eli Weinstein, like many others like him, probably hid his nuts. And even from prison, even facing decades behind bars, he was still planning for the day he'd dig them up. [1:24:52] Remember what he told his co-conspirators about the time in federal prison? Before he got a presidential commutation? According to court documents, he bragged about doing, quote, Millions of dollars of business while in prison, unquote. The same prison where the White House said he had an exemplary record. And he ended up with, quote, Substantial cash and assets in other people's names, unquote. [1:25:23] He wasn't serving time. He was biting time. He was building his nest egg while his victims waited for restitution that would never come. That's the cruelest part of financial crime. The sentence ends, the restitution order stays on the books, and the victims spend the rest of their lives knowing that somewhere, the man who stole from them has money he'll probably never give back. Madoff died in prison in 2021 His victims are still waiting, Weinstein will likely die in prison too And his victims Will still be waiting The squirrels always win And the nuts stay hidden. [1:26:18] There's something I need to tell you to understand about serial financial criminals. Something that took me years of covering these cases to fully grasp. I couldn't believe it in the beginning. But what I learned was, we look at someone like Eli Weinstein and see a broken man. A moral failure. Someone who just couldn't stop himself from stealing. Who destroyed lives. Who betrayed every person who trusted him. We see a cautionary tale, a warning about greed and the damage it causes. [1:26:56] But, in case after case, I've observed something different about how these perpetrators see themselves. They don't see criminals in the mirror. They see someone clever, cunning, a master operator who keeps outsmarting the system, almost like it's an exhilarating game. I mean, listen to those recordings again. I finagled and ponzied and lied to people. In my experience investigating these cases, that kind of language isn't wracked with guilt. It's explanatory, almost boastful. It's how someone describes their craft. Remember that quote? I hid money. Get it? Get it? It sounds like you're being let in on a secret Like it's something to be proud of, I once asked the brother of a serial scammer I'd covered Not Weinstein But someone with a strikingly similar pattern Why he thought his brother kept doing it. [1:28:05] His answer stayed with me. He said, quote, They have the ability to be successful if they applied their talents on legitimate business, but they want the fruits of success without the hard work. So they take the shortcut path and justify it in their minds as being successful, unquote. That justification, that's the key. They're not ashamed of what they've done. They've convinced themselves that is success. [1:28:46] I've interviewed many victims of financial fraud. I've studied case files on perpetrators. And here's the disconnect that makes these crimes so difficult to comprehend. You and me, we see $200 million in unpaid restitution. A monument to failure Serial fraudsters In my experience They see proof they successfully hid assets Even federal investigators couldn't find, We see multiple convictions Decades of prison time Consequences that should break anyone, They see multiple attempts Where they almost got away with it years of living large before it collapsed, and maybe would have kept going if not for bad luck or a disloyal partner. We see a second chance squandered. They see proof the system can be manipulated. [1:29:52] This pattern, this psychology, is why recidivism in financial crime is so persistent. These aren't people failing to learn their lesson. In case after case, I've watched them refine their technique. Look at the progression in this case. The first scheme was classic affinity fraud, exploiting a tight-knit religious community using shared faith as a weapon of trust. And that worked for years. The second scheme, run while awaiting trial for the first, added more layers, more distance between the perpetrator and the money. The third scheme, a fake identity, international co-conspirators, an attorney as a front man, a shell company, crisis commodities, COVID supplies, baby formula, Ukraine aid? That made the fraud feel almost patriotic. Each iteration more sophisticated than the last. That's not the pattern of someone who's broken. That's the pattern of someone who's learning. [1:31:09] And for me, that's what makes these cases so chilling. We want to believe that consequences change people. That prison reforms. That someone who's lost everything, freedom, reputation, standing in their community, would emerge humbled. But in my experience, especially with financial crime, some people don't experience consequences as punishment. They experience them as feedback, data points for the next attempt. What does a serial fraudster learn from their first conviction? Maybe, I don't know, don't steal from people you know using your real name. And what do they learn from their second? Maybe, don't run a scheme while you're already under investigation. And what are they learning right now sitting in federal custody? [1:32:11] I don't know but I'm certain they're learning something or sharing something, but they've got roommates that can maybe teach them a new trick or they can teach them a new trick because in their mind based on every case I've investigated they're not failures, they're works in progress address. [1:32:39] I know, I know. I know what you're thinking. We've heard him confess on tape. We've seen the money trail. We've watched him brag about hidden assets while his victims wait for restitution. How much worse can it get? Well, here's what I've learned covering financial crimes for 30 years. With people like Weinstein, there's always another layer. And each layer reveals something uglier than the last. And what I'm about to tell you about the gambling, about the foreign scams, about what was really happening inside his exemplary prison stay, it shows you just how deliberate this all was. Stay with me because we're almost through the maze. [1:33:33] July 19, 2023. Federal agents move simultaneously on multiple locations. Eli Weinstein arrested again. Aryeh Bromberg arrested. Three of his co-conspirators, Christopher Anderson, Richard Curry, and Ala Mohamed Hattab, had already flipped. They'd pleaded guilty. They were cooperating with the government. Two others remained at large. One was Shlomo Erez, an Israeli citizen who had helped create sham consulting agreements to move the money. U.S. Attorney Philip Selinger held a press conference in Newark, and according to the Asbury Park Press, he said, as alleged, soon after Weinstein got out of jail after receiving a presidential commutation, he picked his Ponzi schemer's playbook back up. [1:34:37] Selinger continued, this is now the third time this office has charged Weinstein with a large-scale scheme to rip off investors. The third time. And this time, there would be no presidential commutation waiting. Different administration. No network of rabbis and lobbyists and congressmen advocating for Eli Weinstein's soul. The co-conspirators who had recorded him were now government witnesses. The WhatsApp messages were in federal hands. The meetings where he bragged about hidden money had been captured on recordings. Alan Dershowitz, the Harvard professor who had helped lobby for Weinstein's commutation, was quoted after the third arrest. According to news reports, he said, Quote, if he's found guilty again, he will receive no mercy, unquote. Dershowitz was about to be proven right. [1:35:49] The trial began in early 2025, and it lasted 27 days. The transcript ran 5,930 pages. The prosecutors played the recordings, the WhatsApp messages, where Weinstein admitted he'd Ponzi'd investors, the meetings where he bragged about hidden money, the coordinated lies documented in his own words. They showed the jury how Weinstein had fabricated deals involving COVID masks that didn't exist, baby formula that was never purchased, and Ukraine first aid kits that were pure fiction. They traced the money from investor accounts through shell companies into real estate purchases and personal expenses. The defense argued technicalities. They challenged evidence. They questioned whether Weinstein knew all the details of every deal. But the recordings were devastating. According to government filings, there were over 19,000 messages between Weinstein and his co-conspirator, Shlomo Erez, alone, many of them explicitly coordinating the fraud. On March 31, 2025, after deliberations, the jury returned its verdict. [1:37:12] Guilty on 15 of 17 counts the conviction was just the beginning judge ship was about to hand down a sentence of 444 months and call weinstein something that captured 20 years of fraud in a single word. [1:37:36] November 14th, 2025, U.S. District Court, Trenton, New Jersey, Judge Michael Shipp presiding. Eli Weinstein stood for sentencing for the third time in his life, and according to news reports, Judge Shipp addressed Weinstein directly. He called him, quote, a predator that has stolen investors' life savings, unquote. A predator? The judge noted that Weinstein had been given an extraordinary opportunity, a presidential commutation that most federal inmates never received, a second chance that he had squandered within months, or even before the ink was dry on his presidential commutation. According to news reports, Judge Shipp said, Weinstein was given an opportunity that not many people get, but he wasted it. The sentence, 444 months, 37 years in federal prison. [1:38:47] Weinstein is 51 years old. If he serves the standard 85% of his sentence, he will be in his 80s before he's eligible for release. It is, effectively, a life sentence. His co-defendant, Broomberg, received 12 years, and his victims? Well, they're owed over $44 million dollars from the scheme alone, on top of the $230 million still outstanding from his previous convictions. [1:39:20] The money will most likely never be recovered. The victims will never be made whole. But there's one more question this case forces us to confront. [1:39:31] About the woman who was present for all three schemes, all three arrests, all three trials. And when investigators asked her what she knew, she invoked the Fifth Amendment. Hey, quick note here. I'm sitting in my car before I go in for a doctor's appointment. And I've already recorded everything you're about to hear, but I couldn't stop thinking about this particular section. What you're going to hear is all documented Court records, subpoenas, Fifth Amendment stuff But I want to be clear about something before we get there Because I am absolutely not attacking Mrs. Weinstein I don't know what she knew I don't know what her intentions were Was she trying to protect the children? Was she just trying to hold together the only life she knew? Was she terrified or confused or maybe loyal to a fault? I have no idea. What I do know is that the court documents raise questions that don't have clean answers. So when you hear this section, don't mistake documentation for accusation. I'm showing you the pattern, not pronouncing guilt. Okay, back to the episode. I gotta go. [1:40:59] We're gonna slow down now. You know, I've thrown a lot at you. Names and numbers and schemes, recordings. I'm sure your brain is probably swimming, and that's okay. That's kind of actually the point. Because what I'm about to show you is how all those pieces connect. Not every piece. I can't prove everything, but enough to show you how this works, how the layers protect each other, and how the silence spreads. Don't try to remember every detail. Just follow the thread. Watch how the ripples play out. Throughout this story, there's been someone present at almost every stage. Someone who was there for all three schemes, all three arrests, and all three sets of consequences. Chanel Weinstein, also known in some court documents as Rivka, Eli Weinstein's wife. What did she know? When did she know it? The court documents raise questions, but don't provide easy answers. In 2010, after Eli's first arrest She was called to testify in civil proceedings Related to the fraud According to court records She invoked her Fifth Amendment right Against self-incrimination, She was held in civil contempt Caught between the legal system's demand for testimony And whatever criminal exposure That testimony might reveal. [1:42:27] But then it gets worse, Remember the Abacisis victims? The earlier group with that $44 million judgment from 2009? Well, they were trying to collect what they were owed, and they needed information about where their money had gone. According to court documents, in January 2011, Rivka Bichler, also known as Rivka Weinstein, was personally served with a subpoena at their home on Seton Circle in Lakewood. The process server noted the details, 35 years old, 5'2", black hair, glasses. She was ordered to appear for a deposition to answer questions under oath about her husband's finances. [1:43:19] She didn't show up. The victim's attorney filed a motion to compel her appearance. In April 2011, a federal district judge issued an order. Rivka Weinstein must appear for deposition on May 12, 2011 at 10 a.m. That order was personally served on her. She signed for it. May 12, 2011 arrived. The court reporter was present. The victim's attorney was present. The certified transcript shows what happened next. At 11.04 a.m., more than an hour after the scheduled deposition, the attorney stated for the record, Ms. Bichler has not attended. I have not received any notice from Ms. Bichler, personally or by an attorney or representative, on her behalf as to her non-attendance today. She simply didn't show up. No call, no attorney, no explanation. A federal judge had ordered her to appear And she apparently ignored it The victims filed a motion for sanctions For contempt of court. [1:44:35] This wasn't just taking the fifth amendment this was defying a federal court order, these were victims from 2009 people who had already won their case still fighting to get answers years later while rivka weinstein refused to even show up, during the third scheme after the commutation after the second chance her name appears again in court documents. According to prosecutors, in January 2022, co-conspirator Broomberg arranged loans of $1 million each to both Eli and Chanel Weinstein. In July 2022, according to court documents, Eli requested his wife's jewelry, a necklace and bracelet to use as props in a meeting with potential victims to make a deal look legitimate. [1:45:33] The jewelry was delivered, the meeting happened, and the fraud continued. But here's what makes this detail particularly obscene. According to federal prosecutors, that jewelry, the diamond necklace and bracelet his wife wore, had been purchased seven months earlier with stolen investor money. December 2021 Investors had given nearly $4 million for something called the Pharmax deal supposedly to purchase medical masks but instead, according to court documents Weinstein directed his co-conspirator to divert the funds elsewhere $1.45 million to a contact named Aziz another $1.45 million to Mike Kogan, $583,000 to Gallagher $100,000 to someone named Mark and $45,000 to Shlomi and $34,000 for a diamond necklace and bracelet for his wife. [1:46:45] The message thread between Weinstein and his co-conspirator laid it all out. According to the government's filings, Weinstein sent a voice note, Hey, don't forget me regarding the bracelet and the necklace. And his co-conspirator responded that he would meet with a jeweler and design something. 18 carat Italian bracelet, special processing, 45 stones, 9 carats, and the necklace, 105 stones, 21 carats. Color grade F, VS Clarity, $34,000. Paid for with money that investors thought was buying medical supplies. And seven months later, that same jewelry was used as props to deceive new victims. The wheel turning, the lie perpetuating itself. Victims funding the tools that would be used to victimize others. [1:47:46] Now, I want to stop here for a moment because this is where these cases just get overwhelming. The fraud piles up scheme after scheme, lie after lie, and at some point, your brain just glazes over. The complexity becomes numbing, and that's exactly how people like Weinstein get away with it. So, let me slow down. Let me show you exactly how this works because once you see the pattern, You can't unsee it. The jewelry, that's our thread. So follow it with me, okay? December 2021, investors give nearly $4 million for what they think is a legitimate medical supply deal. And within days, 34,000 of those dollars become a diamond necklace and bracelet worn by Eli Weinstein's wife. In July 2022, that same jewelry is used as a prop to convince new victims that Weinstein is legitimate, that stolen goods become bait for the next theft. [1:48:51] Now, go back further. In 2009, the Abacacias victims win a $44 million judgment against Weinstein. They're trying to collect, trying to find where he hid the money. They're looking for assets. January 2011, they subpoena Rivka Weinstein. They want her to answer questions under oath about her husband's finances, about what she knows, about what she has. May 2011, a federal judge orders her to appear for deposition. She doesn't show up. I'm sure she's got a good excuse. And what were they looking for? What didn't she want to answer questions about? [1:49:34] Now jump forward, 2014 to 2021, Weinstein is in federal prison, the incarceration the White House would later call exemplary. But according to court documents, he bragged to co-conspirators that he conducted millions of dollars of business while inside, that he ended up with substantial cash and assets in other people's names. See? Assets in other people's names. January 2021 Presidential Commutation Weinstein walks out of jail December 2021 The very first documented luxury purchase with stolen third scheme money is jewelry for his wife. [1:50:24] Now, I can document the jewelry in the third scheme. I have the text messages. I have the wire records. I have the court filings. But it makes me wonder. What about all the other assets, the ones from 2009 that Rivka wouldn't answer questions about? The one Weinstein bragged about hiding during his exemplary prison stay? The substantial cash in other people's names? How much of what this family has accumulated has been quietly recycled through scheme after scheme after scheme, purchased with victim money, held by family members, used to project legitimacy, and hidden from investigators, protected by silence and the Fifth Amendment? I don't know. I can't prove continuity across all three schemes. But the pattern is there And once you see it You understand how this works The complexity isn't a bug It's a feature The layers protect each other The silence protects the layers And the assets just Keep moving around, Through the schemes Through the years Through the prison sentences Hidden In plain sight. [1:51:45] Was the wife a victim herself, deceived by a husband who lied to everyone? Or was she willfully blind, choosing not to answer questions about their lifestyle that their family enjoyed? Or was she something more? I don't know. The court documents don't say. And there was no real investigation that I found into any of this. So what we're left with is more questions and pictures and images. But what I do know is this She was present in the courtroom when Eli pleaded guilty in 2013 She had seven children with him And the youngest born while he was incarcerated, She remained in Lakewood throughout everything And she invoked the Fifth Amendment when asked what she knew. [1:52:40] Here's the irony. The White House justified Weinstein's commutation by calling him a loving husband and the father of seven children. That was the argument. That's why they say he deserved mercy, his devotion to family. But when investigators asked his wife what she knew about her husband's business dealings, she apparently invoked the Fifth Amendment. The Constitutional Protection Against Self-Incrimination. [1:53:14] The same protection fraudsters use when the truth would send them to prison, A loving husband Whose wife couldn't answer questions about his business without risking exposure A devoted family man Whose wife's jewelry was used as props to deceive new victims, a tight-knit family with a million-dollar loan from the same co-conspirator who helped run the third Ponzi scheme. That's the image the White House put forward. That's what convinced a president to grant clemency. And that's what makes this case so infuriating. The White House justified clemency by calling Weinstein a loving husband, but his wife took the fifth. Her jewelry was used as props to deceive victims. And she received a million-dollar loan from the same co-conspirator running the third scheme. So, how did a twice-convicted Ponzi schemer steal $40 million more while supposedly under federal supervision? Hmm. [1:54:25] If you've made it this far, thank you. I know this has been dense. I know it's been a lot of names, a lot of money, a lot of betrayal piled on betrayal. And I know there were moments when you probably thought, how much more can there be? But that fatigue you're feeling right now, that's not an accident. That's a feature. [1:54:56] Here's something I've learned watching these cases over 30 years When complex financial crimes actually make it to trial There's almost always an avalanche of motions Privilege claims, discovery disputes, requests for continuances Challenges to evidence and appeals of preliminary rulings The goal isn't necessarily to win those motions The goal is to drag it out, to delay And the goal is exhaustion, Because prosecutors have limited resources Witnesses move away or die or forget details Victims lose hope and give up And juries get confused by the sheer volume of information And after years of delays Sometimes the government has to fish or cut bait, I've watched it happen Cases that should have resulted in serious prison time Wind up as plea deals Civil suits settle for pennies on the dollar Because the plaintiffs can't afford to keep fighting The complexity becomes a weapon Not to prove innocence But just to outlast everyone else's patience. [1:56:14] As one defense attorney told me once, I'm going to punish them in court as much as I can and make them pay until they stop. In Weinstein's third case, there were two mistrials before he was finally convicted. His attorneys filed motions claiming privilege over nearly 15,000 text messages. 77% of the communications were covered from a co-conspirator's phone. The government had to assign a separate filter team Just to fight those claims That's not justice being served That's justice being stress tested And sometimes the system breaks first, So what do we do with that understanding? How do we make sense of a system that lets this happen? Not once, not twice, but three times. [1:57:19] This case raises uncomfortable questions about clemency, about supervision, about whether our systems are equipped to handle predators who simply will not stop. Eli Weinstein committed fraud while on bail and awaiting trial. He was given 24 years. He committed fraud again within 11 months of receiving a presidential commutation. At every stage, the system gave him another chance. At every stage, he exploited that chance to steal more money from more victims. The supervised release system is supposed to monitor people like Weinstein, to catch warning signs, to prevent exactly what happened here. It failed. It fails more often than you would believe. [1:58:11] And according to court documents, Weinstein was required to report all income, all assets, all employment. He was supposed to be transparent about his financial activities. Instead, he operated under a fake name. He ran a company the prosecutors say was designed from the start to defraud investors. He bragged on tape about hidden money that probation officers never found. How did this happen? How did a twice-convicted Ponzi schemer manage to steal another $40 million while supposedly under federal supervision? Those are good questions that deserve good answers. Questions that the victims of Weinstein's third scheme are surely asking. [1:59:05] The probation system was designed to prevent exactly this, and it failed completely. But here's the thing. Even if the system had worked perfectly, even if probation officers had caught Weinstein the moment he stepped out of line, it wouldn't solve the real problem. [1:59:28] And I know that because a convicted scammer told me so. Earlier, I promised I'd share some advice from someone who knew the game from the inside. His name is Damian Kutzner. And on his way to federal prison, he sent me a guest post for my other site, getoutofdebt.org. Kutzner had just been sentenced to 70 months for running debt relief scams. These weren't amateur operations. These were sophisticated enough to pull in licensed attorneys. Entire law firms got tangled up in his schemes. Professionals who should have known better became part of the machine. What Kutzner wrote wasn't a defense. It wasn't an excuse. It was a confession, a breakdown of how the game actually works. And everything he described maps directly onto what Eli Weinstein did to his community. Let me share some of what he wrote. [2:00:40] First, the Hydra problem. Kutzner wrote, For everyone we attack and shut down, there are three more that pop up. He wasn't bragging. He was being honest about something prosecutors don't like to admit. You can arrest Eli Weinstein. You can say whatever you want about his wife. You can punish everyone you want. You can sentence people to decades or lifetimes. And somewhere, right now, someone else is running the same playbook. [2:01:14] Second, Damien told me about the importance of the emotional targeting. Kutzner explained how sales teams identify what they call harms. Emotional vulnerabilities they hear in their victim's voice. Fear, desperation, hope, desires. The desire to provide for their family. Think about maybe that desire to provide for orphaned children in Israel. He wrote, quote, If they hear in your voice any emotion, they call it a harm. They create sales scripts to train on that specifically to go over these harms. And what time in the call to repeat the emotional harms back to the customer. This will make the customer make an emotional buy, which then can be controlled versus logically thought through. [2:02:11] Controlled. That's the word he used. Think about what Weinstein was doing in Lakewood. He wasn't targeting strangers. He was targeting people who already trusted him. People who shared his faith in his community, his values. People whose emotional defenses were already down because the pitch was coming from inside the circle. That's not an accident. That's the playbook. Third, Kutzner shared the knowledge of asymmetry He described how sales agents go through quote, weeks of training and role-playing, unquote to sharpen their skills They practice objection handling They rehearse scripts They learn exactly when to push and when to pull back Meanwhile, the victim knows almost nothing about how these schemes work, Kutzner wrote quote the person on the phone you're talking to goes through weeks of training and role-playing to sharpen their skills in speaking with you, Unquote It's not a fair fight It was never meant to be. [2:03:32] Next, he thought it was important to talk about the reinvention cycle. Kutzner noted that perpetrators, quote, wind up folding and resurrecting themselves using a similar scheme but with a different product, unquote. Does that sound familiar? Weinstein's first scheme was real estate. His second was Facebook IPO shares. His third was cryptocurrency and COVID relief funds. Same playbook, different wrapper. Every single time. And here's something Kutzner wrote that really stopped me cold. He said scammers that he knew, quote, used to hate it when I wrote about them on my site, getoutofdebt.org. When they wrote about us, it made our skin crawl. We had to confront it, which exposed us, unquote. That's why I do this. That's why this podcast exists. Not because I think we can prosecute our way out of this problem. We can't. Kutzner told us that himself. For every one we shut down, three more pop up. But exposure matters because sunlight matters and making people uncomfortable matters. [2:04:59] Kutzner's conclusion was simple. He wrote that it's better to address where the root of this sales game can be neutered by knowing the game than to address the individual company that won't be here tomorrow. Education over enforcement. Awareness over arrests. Maybe the courts can't stop this. Maybe the probation system can't stop this. Maybe presidential clemency reviews Obviously can't stop this So the only real defense isn't the system. [2:05:36] It's you Knowing the patterns Recognizing the signs Understanding that when something sounds too good to be true Especially when it comes from someone you trust Someone who prays beside you Someone vouched for by people you respect It almost certainly is, I had another scammer tell me once I use religion and God Almost every chance I get Because if you Soften them up with God They won't notice that you stole their watch, So this brings us to the final question The one that has haunted me Through the 30 years of investigating, Lots of people like Eli Weinstein In fact, Weinstein in this whole scheme Is really just a placeholder for many schemes and scams that I've covered. [2:06:33] What makes someone destroy everything they touch over and over again, even when they know exactly what they're doing? [2:06:48] I had to go check because I wanted to make sure that as of this recording, Eli Weinstein was still sitting in federal custody. The community in Lakewood continues. Synagogues still hold services. Businesses still operate on handshakes and trust. The overwhelming majority of people there are exactly what they appear to be. Faithful and honest and hardworking members of a close-knit community. But the memory of Eli Weinstein lingers. A reminder that predators don't always look like outsiders. Sometimes they prey beside you and sometimes they're vouched for. By people you trust with your very soul. Why? Why would someone with a family, a community, a place in the world, why would they risk everything to steal from the people closest to them and then do it again and again? Was it greed? Compulsion? Some inability to see other people as fully real? I don't know. The court documents don't explain motive. They only document behavior. [2:08:08] I started this episode with Weinstein's own words. I finagled and ponzied and lied to people. He recorded that after the presidential commutation, after the second chance, after the gratitude video thanking the president for his freedom. He knew exactly what he was doing, but he did it anyway. And now he's in federal prison again, 37 years this time, maybe. No possibility of a presidential rescue Maybe His benefactor is back in office But even political loyalty has limits When the optics are this bad, Remember, this is a man who ran a Ponzi scheme While awaiting trial for a Ponzi scheme Who defrauded new victims while on supervised release For defrauding previous victims who, according to court documents, conducted millions of dollars of business from inside federal prison and ended up with substantial cash and assets in other people's names. [2:09:21] He's a smart guy. He's demonstrated repeatedly that walls don't stop him, that monitoring doesn't stop him, that consequences don't stop him. So I have to ask the question, what's he doing right now? Is he finally, at 50 years old, facing decades behind bars, truly done? Has he finally exhausted his capacity for reinvention? Or is there someone out there right now receiving a phone call from a federal facility? Someone being told about an incredible opportunity. Someone being assured that Eli Weinstein, yes, that Eli Weinstein, has learned his lesson. He's contrite he's found his faith and he just needs a little help with a legitimate venture, i don't know i can't know but if his history tells us anything it's this, betting against eli weinstein's ability to find new victims would be the only wager he's ever lost. [2:10:42] At the beginning of this episode, I mentioned a scammer I sued 30 years ago. I promised I'd tell you who he was. His name was Andrus Pucky. When I sued him, he was running a debt relief company that was ripping off consumers. And after that, he was convicted of mail fraud and obstruction of justice. And the Federal Trade Commission hit him with a $172 million judgment. You'd think that would be the end of the story. It wasn't. He went to prison for a bit. He got out. And he resurfaced years later, running a real estate scheme in Belize called Sanctuary Belize. He promised retirees their dream homes in paradise. He used fake names, Mark Romeo, Andy Storm, to hide his involvement. He directed his salespeople to lie about his criminal history. He stole nearly $10 million for a waterfront mansion, personal investments, payments to family and friends. Hundreds of victims. $77 million. Many of them retirees who lost their savings. [2:11:59] Does it sound familiar? In July 2024, Puckey was convicted of wire fraud and obstruction of justice, and last year he was sentenced to eight more years in federal prison. Eight years. After mail fraud, after obstruction, after a $172 million Federal Trade Commission judgment, after Sanctuary Belize, It's a different name than Weinstein, a different scheme and different victims, but it's kind of the same pattern. Same inability to stop. [2:12:38] If you've hung with me through this entire episode, and I know it was a long one because I recorded it. But I thank you. Whether you're listening in New Jersey where this all started or Cape Town or Johannesburg or anywhere else in the world I want to say, Bayadenki that's thank you very much in Afrikaans for our loyal listeners in South Africa that's just for you and you've stuck with me through over two hours of financial carnage and that means something, You now know more about these complex scams and how they actually work than most people ever will. You understand the patterns, the emotional targeting, the fake names and reinvention cycles, the way professionals get pulled under, the way complexity itself becomes a weapon. You've heard it from a convicted scammer's own words. You've seen it play out across three federal prosecutions spanning 20 years. That knowledge, that is your armor. [2:13:49] If this episode gave you something valuable, if it made you think, or helped you understand how to protect yourself or someone you care about, I would be personally grateful if you would leave me a five-star review on Apple Podcasts. It's how new listeners find the show. And the more people who hear these stories, the fewer victims, I hope, there will be. [2:14:16] At the beginning of this episode, I called this a financial massacre, and I asked you to tell me if I was wrong. [2:14:26] After everything you've heard the widow who lost her husband's legacy the retirees who lost their savings the hundreds of victims across three schemes and 20 years the charities weaponized the professionals destroyed the community betrayed, was i wrong or was i right, damien kutzner was right for everyone we attack and shut down three more pop up Weinstein, Pucky, and somewhere out there right now, someone we haven't heard of yet. They'll be running the same playbook with a different rapper. The only defense is knowing that game, and that's why I tell these stories. [2:15:09] If you want to receive detailed case files and documents when I release episodes, well, then you need to be sure that you're subscribed to the email list. Visit the link in the show notes and join the email list or go to truecrimeunheard.com so you can be in the know, I'm Steve Rode this has been True Crime Cases You Haven't Heard, stay safe stay curious and stay subscribed bye. [2:15:49] Thank you.