Trenton, NJ – A New Jersey man serving a lengthy prison term for running a $200 million Ponzi-style real estate scheme has lost his bid to withdraw his guilty plea and have charges he admitted to in another case dismissed.
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Eliyahu Weinstein had argued that the federal judge who oversaw the latter case — in which Weinstein admitted defrauding investors in connection with a Facebook initial public offering — was “tainted” because he oversaw the plea deal in the real estate scheme case.
Weinstein also claimed his lawyer had a conflict of interest because he had advised investors in the Facebook IPO case, which put him at risk of prosecution. Weinstein also argued that the Facebook case amounted to double jeopardy.
But a three-judge panel with the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals rejected his claims in rulings issued Friday.
The panel found the judge’s participation in the real estate scheme plea deal was extremely limited. They also found any claims to the contrary were “unsubstantiated hearsay.”
The judges also found that any interactions Weinstein’s lawyer had with investment customers was based on his belief that the money would be properly invested, not kept by Weinstein. That meant the lawyer would not have faced prosecution and was able to represent Weinstein in the case.
In his double jeopardy claim, Weinstein asserted that prosecutors had split the overall case into two cases so they could tack on more prison time. The judges, though, said the Facebook case involved “different victims in different locations, different time periods, different co-conspirators, and different schemes.”
Weinstein received a 22-year term in 2014 for the real estate scheme. He pleaded guilty in the Facebook case a few months later and was sentenced to more than 11 years in that matter.
However, the judge in the latter case ruled that the bulk of that sentence would run concurrently with the real estate scheme term, with just two years of the Facebook sentence having to be served consecutively.
Let him bunk with Shelly. Like minds
Fellas, don’t do the crime because you will probably have to do the time. And then don’t start whinging about how unfair it is.
chillul Hashem
It is very unfortunate that this discussion comes up when the headline has the word orthodox in it, but the real issue is that criminal justice needs reform, since the excessive jail terms are given left and right for non violent crimes and it reaches unprecedented proportions with every new case, jewish people in particular do not have a chance at all, now someone will respond to this comment saying all nice things about jury of your peers bla bla, don’t lie to yourself, we are not a preferred class of people and have a huge disadvantage when being judged by any jury, convictions are almost 100% and prosecutors know that, therefore, even when people have not committed anything close to what they are being accused of, they tend to choose to take a plea instead of going in front of a jury, ask any criminal attorney who has ever advised an indicted Jewish person in the USA, to sum it up, we never have a day in court, criminal justice needs reform
He is guilty as sin!! He robbed my family millions $!!!! “Sold” real estate that never existed. How could he be innocent???
rav belsky never said he wasnt guilty i work for rav belsky beisdin. rav belsky felt terrible for his poor parents, wife & kids wonderful ppl. and was trying to see if anything could be done ” as far as damage control” . he was stunned by the proportions of this case and how many yiddin got messed up.
Those who would shorten his sentence because he has a wife and children have misplaced rachmonus. If you care about them, find ways to support them. But don’t look for ways to get this guy out – he’s a financial predator who has been pulling this stuff since he was a teenager. When he gets out he will surely victimize others.