New Jersey
Convicted fraudster who had sentence commuted by Trump is now facing new charges
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — A New Jersey man who was twice convicted of defrauding investors out of $230 million and whose lengthy prison sentence was commuted by President Donald Trump is once again facing fraud charges, federal prosecutors in New Jersey announced Wednesday.
Eliyahu “Eli” Weinstein, 48, of Lakewood, who is also known as Mike Konig, is among five men accused of defrauding dozens of investors out of $35 million, according to an arrest complaint unsealed in federal court in Trenton. The five are charged with wire fraud conspiracy and conspiracy to obstruct justice, and each could face up to 25 years in prison.
Philip Sellinger, the U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, said Weinstein used a fake name and falsely promised access to deals involving scarce medical supplies, baby formula and first-aid kits supposedly destined for wartime Ukraine.
“These were brazen and sophisticated crimes that involved multiple conspirators and drew right from Weinstein’s playbook of fraud,” Sellinger said.
Weinstein, Aryeh “Ari” Bromberg, 49, of Lakewood, and Shlomo Erez, 55, a citizen and resident of Israel, were due to make their initial court appearances Wednesday. Two others — Joel Wittels, 57, of Lakewood, and Alaa Hattab, 34, of Ottawa, Canada — remain at large. It wasn’t known if they have retained attorneys.
Weinstein was convicted two times in New Jersey federal court for defrauding investors. The first case involved a real estate Ponzi scheme, and the second stemmed from additional fraud he committed while on pretrial release.
For those crimes, which resulted in combined losses to investors of approximately $230 million, Weinstein was sentenced to 24 years in prison. On Jan. 19, 2021, the day before leaving office, then-President Trump commuted Weinstein’s term to time served after less than eight years into his sentence.
Shortly after he was released, Weinstein began orchestrating a new scheme to solicit money from investors through a company called Optimus Investments Inc., according to court documents. Using a fake name, he allegedly ran the firm with Bromberg and Wittels, with Weinstein’s true name and identity kept hidden because, as he acknowledged in a secretly recorded conversation, investors wouldn’t give them “a penny” if they learned of his involvement.
Weinstein, Bromberg, and Wittels received the bulk of investor money through a second company, Tryon Management Group LLC, which was owned and controlled by two other conspirators, according to the documents. Tryon promised these individual investors — consisting mostly of friends and family — lucrative opportunities to invest in deals, and the money they gave to Tryon was transferred to Weinstein through Optimus.
In February 2022, almost immediately after Tryon and Optimus started receiving investor money, Tryon was unable to pay its investors. Weinstein, Bromberg, and Wittels allegedly agreed with Tryon’s owners to pool money from existing investors of both Optimus and Tryon and use it to make monthly payments to other investors in a Ponzi-like fashion. Bromberg, Wittels and the Tryon owners falsely told investors the payments derived from legitimate investment returns, the documents say.
In late August 2022, Weinstein revealed his true identity to the Tryon owners in a secretly recorded meeting, according to the documents. In another recorded meeting the same month, he acknowledged misappropriating Tryon investor money and making various false statements about the purported Optimus deals, saying, “I finagled and Ponzied and lied to people to cover us.”
Alabama
State to carry out first lethal injection after review of execution procedures
ATMORE, Ala. (AP) — Alabama plans to execute an inmate on Thursday for the 2001 beating death of a woman as the state seeks to carry out its first lethal injection after a pause in executions following a string of problems with inserting the IVs.
James Barber, 64, is scheduled to be put to death Thursday evening at a south Alabama prison. It is the first execution scheduled in the state since Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey paused executions in November to conduct an internal review.
Ivey ordered the review after two lethal injections were called off because of difficulties inserting IVs into the condemned men’s veins. Advocacy groups claimed a third execution, carried out after a delay because of IV problems, was botched, a claim the state has disputed.
“Given Alabama’s recent history of botched executions, it is staggering that James Barber’s lethal injection is set to take place,” Maya Foa, director of the anti-death penalty group Reprieve, said. “Three executions in a row went horribly wrong in Alabama last year, yet officials have asserted that ‘no deficiencies’ were found in their execution process.”
Barber was convicted in the 2001 beating death of 75-year-old Dorothy Epps. Prosecutors said Barber, a handyman who knew Epps’ daughter, confessed to killing Epps with a claw hammer and fleeing with her purse. Jurors voted 11-1 to recommend a death sentence, which a judge imposed.
Barber’s execution was scheduled for the same day that Oklahoma executed Jemaine Cannon for stabbing a Tulsa woman to death with a butcher knife in 1995 after his escape from a prison work center.
Attorneys for Barber have asked federal courts to block the lethal injection, citing the state’s past problems. The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused to halt the execution on Wednesday. Judges noted the state had conducted a review of procedures and wrote that “Barber’s claim that the same pattern would continue to occur” is “purely speculative.”
Barber could appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
“Defendants have failed to carry out a lethal injection execution in a constitutional manner not once, not twice, but three times in a row,” lawyers for Barber wrote in a court filing with the 11th Circuit. “And all three failures suffered from the same underlying problem: protracted efforts to establish IV access.”
The Alabama attorney general’s office has urged the courts to let the execution proceed. The state argued that the Department of Corrections has made a good faith effort to correct any problems that had occurred and has submitted documentation showing the people responsible for setting IV lines are appropriately licensed.
“Mrs. Epps and her family have waited for justice for twenty-two years,” the Alabama attorney general’s office wrote in a court filing.
The state conducted an internal review of procedures. Ivey rebuffed requests from several groups, including a group of faith leaders, to follow the example of Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee and authorize an independent review of the state’s execution procedures.
One of the changes Alabama made following the internal review was to give the state more time to carry out the execution. The Alabama Supreme Court did away with its customary midnight deadline to get an execution underway in order to give the state more time to establish an IV line and battle last-minute legal appeals. The state will have until 6 a.m. Friday to start Barber’s execution.
