Ponzi Schemer Pardoned by Trump Faces New Fraud Charges

Charisma Madarang
·2 min read
2
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

A New Jersey man who had his prison sentence commuted by then-President Donald Trump has been arrested again for allegedly defrauding investors out of millions of dollars.

Eliyahu “Eli” Weinstein, 48, and four other men are being charged with defrauding at least 150 people out of $35 million in a “Ponzi-like scheme,” according to a statement from the office of the U.S. attorney for New Jersey.

In addition to Weinstein, the office charged Aryeh “Ari” Bromberg, 49, and Joel Wittels, 57, also of Lakewood; Shlomo Erez, 55, a citizen and resident of Israel; and Alaa Hattab, 34, of Ottawa, Canada. Each of the defendants were charged with one count of wire fraud conspiracy and one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice.

Soon after being released from prison, Weinstein, operating under the alias Michael Konig, and the others began to orchestrate a scheme to solicit money from investors through a company called Optimus Investments Inc, according to prosecutors.

Weinstein, Bromberg, and Wittels allegedly received the bulk of investor money through a second company, Tryon Management Group LLC, which was owned and run by two other associates. Through Tryon, the group allegedly promised investors — mostly friends and family — “lucrative deals” involving “COVID-19 masks, scarce baby formula, and first-aid kits supposedly bound for wartime Ukraine.” Tryon then moved those funds to Weinstein through Optimus, the office stated.

Tryon was unable to pay its investors, and in a secretly recorded meeting, Weinstein revealed his true identity to the Tryon owners, according to prosecutors. “I finagled, and Ponzied, and lied to people to cover us,” Weinstein said.

“Once the Tryon owners learned that Mike Konig was actually Weinstein, they agreed with the defendants to continue concealing Weinstein’s identity from investors and to raise additional money to pay off existing Tryon investors, all in an effort to stop the Ponzi scheme from falling apart and to cover up the fraud,” the statement said.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the men charged also helped hide Weinstein’s assets that should have been used to pay over $200 million in restitution he owes previous victims. The defendants are also accused of concealing Weinstein’s “myriad” business activities, which were prohibited under the terms of his supervised release.

Weinstein, a former car salesman, had been serving a 22-year prison sentence when Trump commuted his sentence in January 2021. Weinstein had been convicted of concocting a $200 million real estate Ponzi scheme that investigators said took advantage of the deal-by-handshake way of doing business within New Jersey’s Orthodox Jewish communities. His release from prison was part of a spree of pardons and commutations (nearly 150 in all) by Trump that included convicted felons such as Paul Manafort, Roger Stone, Charles Kushner, and others.

More from Rolling Stone

Best of Rolling Stone

Click here to read the full article.