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Caleb Newquist: Is January 20th, 2021, the last day of Donald Trump's first presidential term. It was a good day, but it was an especially good day for 143 people that were granted executive clemency. I mean, I can't speak from personal experience, but if you get a call from someone and they say, hey, guess what? The president said you can get out of jail today. That's a pretty great day. Like, I [00:00:30] don't I don't know if you can outside of like, maybe winning the lottery. I don't know if you can have a better day than that. I don't know, kids being born. Whatever. I don't wedding. I don't know. It's a good day when you get that call. Anyway, one of those people who were granted clemency was Eliyahu Weinstein, also known as Elie Weinstein, was in the eighth year of a 24 year sentence for a real estate investment fraud. His sentence was commuted, so that meant he was a free man. [00:01:00] A statement from the white House listed the members of Congress and criminal justice reform advocates who supported the commutation, and the statement even said that numerous victims had written in support of it. The statement concluded, Mr. Weinstein is the father of seven children and a loving husband. Upon his release, he will have strong support from his community and members of his faith. All the work that Weinstein supporters and advocates had done on his behalf, seeking [00:01:30] leniency, all of it had finally paid off. Elie Weinstein was getting a second chance.

Speaker2: Are you an accountant with a continuing education requirement? You can earn free Nasba approved CPE for listening to this episode. Just visit earmarked app in your web browser, take a short quiz and get your certificate.

Caleb Newquist: This [00:02:00] is. Oh My fraud! A true crime podcast where no good fraud goes unpunished. But the best ones usually do. I'm Caleb Newquist. Happy new year. Happy 2026. How's it going? Are you dry? Are you exercising again? Are you reading less news? Did you delete Facebook? That's a good one. Have you called your mom more at all? Me? Um, I'm trying to drink less caffeine. I [00:02:30] haven't mentioned it in a while, but I've been using a CPAp machine for the last several months, and that's going okay. I wouldn't say it's going great. It's going fine. But overall, I would say my sleep is better. But the one thing I've noticed is that. From using that therapy because I am sleeping better, caffeine's effect on me has gotten more noticeable. So before I used a CPAp, I could drink caffeine all day And by the end of day, I [00:03:00] could fall asleep. No problem. Like I could have a coffee or an iced tea or a Diet Coke or whatever after 5 p.m. and not even think about it, right? Sometimes when Greg and I would record late at night, I would, I would, I would definitely have sodas and with fully leaded, you know, caffeine. And when we were done, I would I would fall asleep in two minutes. But now post CPAp therapy or concurrent with the CPAp therapy if I have caffeine [00:03:30] too late in the day, it takes me a long time to fall asleep.

Caleb Newquist: So I gotta skip. I gotta skip high caffeine stuff in the afternoons now. Like maybe an espresso shot, maybe a cortado, but definitely no, like American coffee. No drip, no black tea. If I have a soft drink, it's got to be seltzer or 7up or something. Maybe a root beer. I don't trust the root beer, though. Something about that caramel color, I just, I just think I'm going to get a jolt from it. I [00:04:00] don't care if it says caffeine free. I just I don't know, something about the root beer. I don't trust it. Anyway, good luck with your, uh, your own personal, um, uh, resolutions. Okay. Maybe to commit less fraud, I don't know. How about a couple reviews? Here's one from Apple Podcasts. Hanson KA1649 writes happy significant other. I am enjoying listening along as my significant other is getting his CPE. We always laugh out loud [00:04:30] and have lots to discuss after each episode. I love this review so much! Oh my fraud bringing couples closer together. Who needs therapy? Just come listen to white collar true crime. Have some laughs. That's some quality ass time right there. There was also a flurry of comments on the fraud against the Machine episode. Episode 97. Um, these were in the earmark app. John M gave it five stars and writes, as always, a good episode, though I miss his co-host. [00:05:00] Look, I didn't want to say anything, but for everyone who misses Greg, he is very happy.

Caleb Newquist: Not to say that he doesn't miss you all. That's not what I'm saying. I'm just saying he is happy not doing the podcast. It's nothing personal. I'm just being fully transparent. I've seen him recently. I've talked to him. He's doing great. Okay. And he wouldn't mind me telling you this because he believes in transparency. I know he [00:05:30] does. So there you have it. Sorry. And also Zack was on that episode, so if he, you know, if Zack is not an adequate replacement for Greg, I don't know what to tell you. I think he does a fine job and he produces these episodes. He chooses the music, he does the engineering. Like, what do you want? I mean, you know, I mean, look, Zack was on the episode and we have a good time talking. Okay, so that's not nothing. [00:06:00] All right. Finally. Well, no. Two more. Michael M also gave it five stars and wrote in all caps. This is amazing and fun way to earn CPE. I listen to this stuff on a regular basis and not getting credit for it. That's a big win. I appreciate the enthusiasm. All right, finally, Constantine, five stars and simply wrote awesome. Very succinct. Good on you, Constantine. All right, [00:06:30] a couple other things. We launched a survey late last month to see if you would like more oh, my fraud content, and whether you'd be willing to support us through Patreon to get it, if you would.

Caleb Newquist: There's a couple of things you can do. You can email us your thoughts at O at CPE. Com. Or you can take a survey, a very, very short survey. Three questions. It's in the show notes. It's a Google [00:07:00] form. It is not going to break your computer or anything. No virus whatever. But click on that link. Complete the survey. It takes less than five minutes. Please and thank you. Also, something else I'll mention. It won't affect most of you, but I am guest lecturing in the forensic accounting class the spring semester forensic accounting class at the University of Denver. I guest lectured there last year and it was a ton of fun. Looking forward [00:07:30] to doing that again. Also, if your firm or conference or event needs a live or virtual presentation, fraud or ethics. I mentioned this every time. Limited spots available. Okay, but email me and we can talk about it. Oh my fraud at your mark CPE. Com to get more information. Okay, that's enough business time for some fraud. Lakewood [00:08:00] Township, new Jersey, is located in Ocean County in central new Jersey. It's about an hour and a half drive south from New York, and about an hour and a half drive east of Philadelphia. It is the fifth largest city in the Garden State, according to the 2020 census. Lakewood has seen rapid population growth in the past few decades, primarily due to its significant Orthodox Jewish community.

Caleb Newquist: Orthodox [00:08:30] families are often large, and so there's been a bit of a baby boom there over the last 20 years or so. Lakewood's orthodox roots go back decades, however. The township is home to Beth Medrash Govoha. Hope I'm saying that right. It is the largest yeshiva outside of Israel, and it was founded in 1943. Lakewood Word is where Eliyahu Elie Weinstein settled after being raised in Brooklyn, the son of a Jewish community leader [00:09:00] and school principal, Elie likewise was a prominent figure in his Lakewood community. He was known to be devout and to donate generously to religious organizations and charities. Elie's business was real estate development. Starting around 2004. He invested in various commercial and residential projects. Through various connections and access, Elie would learn about below market rate real estate opportunities, acquire them, [00:09:30] and then quickly resell them to buyers that he had lined up for development. The investors in the deal would make a tidy profit, and then they would roll those profits into the next deal. Due to Elie's reputation within the Orthodox community, he was able to raise significant amounts of money. And because these Orthodox communities are very tight knit, very close, these are often handshake deals with very little paperwork. According [00:10:00] to a 2011 indictment filed by the US attorney for the District of New Jersey, three investors, two based in the UK and another in Bronxville, New York, put in over $136 million alone.

Caleb Newquist: Weinstein marketed these investments as having guaranteed or near guaranteed returns, with short turnarounds and very little risk. What's not to like? Well, if you listen to our show, [00:10:30] then you know the answer. Everything. Everything about those things is not likable. All of those things are red flags. But, hey, this is a community leader. Let's support him in his endeavors. He's given back to the community. He donated. You know, as I said, he donated to religious organizations and charities, and he spent millions of dollars on Judaica, which is Jewish devotional artwork and artifacts. By early 2010, however, [00:11:00] Elie's reputation was starting to sour a bit and he had to start raising money from investors outside the Orthodox community. This only lasted a short time, however, as he was arrested in August of 2010 and indicted a little over a year later in October 2011, with 45 criminal counts. Along with his main coconspirator, Vladimir Serov. Now, as is typical in these cases, the indictment [00:11:30] has all kinds of fun details that I would love to share with you now. Fun detail number one involves a unnamed bank that Weinstein and one of his coconspirators went to for a mortgage to invest in a Brooklyn property. They were. They wanted 6 million bucks as a part of the deal. Ellie and Sephora. Ellie Weinstein and Vladimir Serov. They had to contribute 2 million. And they told the bank, no problem, we can do that. Except [00:12:00] there was a problem.

Caleb Newquist: Weinstein had arranged to have the seller of the Brooklyn property loan him $2 million. And when he presented the checks to get the 6 million released from the bank, the indictment describes these as show checks with the scare quotes. These checks were never negotiated or used to purchase the Brooklyn property, and the accounts upon which they were drawn had insufficient funds. So, [00:12:30] as you might expect, Weinstein quickly fell behind on the mortgage payments. And so there was a meeting at the bank. And this next part, I will just quote from the indictment directly. During this meeting, Defendant Weinstein admitted that he did not, in fact, invest any money at the closing and told the bank a representative, among other things, that defendant Weinstein had fucked. Bank A and that Bank A should get over it if they [00:13:00] wanted to solve the problem. Good one. Right? I think we would all relish the chance to tell a bank that we had fucked them and to get over it. But, you know, typically those things aren't well received. Anyway, here's another one. This involved one of Weinstein's investors who had participated in multiple transactions in 2005. This person had invested more than $70 million on behalf of themselves, but also relatives, business partners and clients. [00:13:30] In one instance, Weinstein raised 5.4 million from this person for a project that involved leasing a property to a national supermarket chain in Trotwood, Georgia. But there was also a small problem with this deal.

Caleb Newquist: There is no Trotwood, Georgia, and the supermarket chain had no records of dealing with Weinstein at all. I. Let's go back to the indictment quote. In or about March 2010, defendant Weinstein [00:14:00] met with one of the victim's representatives and asked the representative what the representative's wife and defendant Weinstein had in common. When the representative indicated that he did not know, defendant Weinstein replied, we both fucked you. God. So Elie Weinstein fucks, but, you know, not in a good way. Noted. All right, one more. A retired widow in Los Angeles who I am not making [00:14:30] this up. Quote. Worked to assist orphaned and poor children in Israel. Widows and orphans? No, not widows and orphans. Weinstein got this widow whose work supported orphans to give him $1.2 million, which he promised to repay in a very short amount of time, three weeks with a significant amount of interest. This woman's dream was to open a music school for these orphans and poor kids, and Weinstein promised he would also make [00:15:00] this help make this happen. Okay, he even promised to secure the investment with interest in some of his Lakewood Township properties that he had. Again, there were some issues. The properties were either one fraudulently obtained, two pledged to other victims, or. Or three in foreclosure proceedings. Another problem he didn't return the money in three weeks. Back [00:15:30] to the indictment one more time. Quote. As a result, the widow began sending defendant Weinstein emails asking for the return of the money.

Caleb Newquist: For example, on or about June 11th, 2010, she sent an email to defendant Weinstein imploring him to stop screwing around and to send the money. The next morning, Defendant Weinstein responded to the email by writing simply, fuck you. He said, fuck you to a widow. A widow that helped orphans. [00:16:00] Fuck you widow who helps orphans? I will not be badgered by you. You will not be getting the money back that you would use to help needy, parentless children. Man. Lee Weinstein ultimately pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of money laundering in January 2013. His Ponzi scheme. This Ponzi scheme had caused more than $200 million in losses. The judge in the case, Joel [00:16:30] Pisano. Man, he did not like Elie at sentencing. In February 2014, Judge Pisano said, quote, you are a cheat. You lied and your deception is relentless. You're consumed by deception. Any sentence? Weinstein to 22 years in prison and restitution of $250 million and forfeiture of $215 million. So, speaking of money, you might be wondering [00:17:00] what Lee Weinstein was doing with all that money. Um, honestly, nothing too remarkable. It was a Ponzi scheme. So some of the money went to back to earlier investors. Right? That's how Ponzi scheme works. But also a lot of the money went to the religious and charitable organizations, you know, to bolster his reputation, which worked obviously very well.

Caleb Newquist: Um, but then, you know, standard stuff gambling, art, personal expenses, luxury cars. That's about it. Oh, by [00:17:30] the way, three months after this, in May 2014, Weinstein was indicted on new charges. And in this case, it was a scheme to defraud victims regarding investments in Facebook stock and Florida real estate. Okay, now this indictment came or. I'm sorry. This, uh, this activity that he was indicted for. This happened in February of 2012. These [00:18:00] were pre-IPO shares of Facebook that he was purportedly trying to get people to invest in. Anyway, he was already under indictment by this point. So he's under indictment. He tries to sell pre IPO shares of Facebook that he does not have. And Florida real estate that he does not have while he is awaiting uh justice for his real estate Ponzi scheme. So [00:18:30] yeah it will come as no surprise or as I as I already mentioned, um, he did not have shares of pre IPO Facebook. Um, in fact that money that he raised from that he used to pay his lawyers for the other fraud case, which is awesome. Well, maybe not awesome, but it's hilarious. Anyway, Judge Pisano sentenced Weinstein to an additional 24 months in prison in December 2014, a total sentence of [00:19:00] more than 24 years. Elie Weinstein had served about eight years in prison when Donald Trump commuted his sentence. You know, seven, eight years. That's not nothing.

Caleb Newquist: It's definitely not nothing. And it's not as though Weinstein had no legitimate claim to leniency. His lawyers and supporters argued that the 24 years that he had received was far too harsh of a sentence, and it was [00:19:30] a pretty harsh sentence. Um, I'm not a sentencing expert to say whether it was too harsh, but we've definitely heard about people who have stolen lots of money, who have gotten senses far less than that. But anyway, the their their case was that he was treated very unfairly. Still, white collar criminals are very infrequently chosen for clemency. I mean, at least prior to the first Trump administration, [00:20:00] that is, on that last day of his first term, Trump granted clemency either a pardon or a commutation to more than a dozen people. By my count, maybe I got it wrong, but looked about to be about a dozen people who had either been convicted or were facing fraud charges, including Elliot Weinstein. In the aftermath of the commutation, Weinstein's case was reported on extensively in the press, along with others who got clemency, [00:20:30] who were either wealthy, well-connected, or both. You probably heard about some of these stories. Um, I've linked to two New York Times stories in the show notes that go into You painstaking detail on how Weinstein and some of these other white collar criminals likely benefited from their connections. But now, let me just now that we've said that, let me also say that the issue of executive clemency is a massive topic, [00:21:00] especially when you talk about the Trump administration.

Caleb Newquist: And we we really can't get into most of it here. You know, for the purposes of this story, we'll just keep it super simple and say, Lee Weinstein had help from organizations that care deeply about criminal justice reform and also happen to have connections to the white House. Um, they were able to get this case. They were able to get Lee's case in front of Donald Trump, and he commuted Lee sentence. That's what [00:21:30] happened. Did he deserve it? I don't know. That's above my pay grade. Although I would maybe say that I don't have a ton of sympathy for someone who writes fuck you in an email to a widow who helps orphans. I don't know, maybe that's just me. Still clemency? And who gets it and why? Again, beyond the scope of this episode, maybe not a different episode, though, I don't know. We'll see. There's a lawyer out there by the name of Liz [00:22:00] Oyer. She worked in the Pardon office of the Department of Justice, and she talks a lot about the process in the Trump era. She was on 60 minutes recently. She's written in the New York Times and The Atlantic about the topic. Uh, I would like to talk to her about these things. Um, so, Liz, if you're listening, uh, come on the show and we will do that. Particularly, you know, the white collar stuff.

Caleb Newquist: Um, but maybe a long shot. She's on 60 minutes, I don't know. Anyway, think about it. Okay. All right. So Ellie [00:22:30] Weinstein is a free man in January 2021. And in July 2021, he started spinning up another front. Now, to be fair. To be perfectly fair. Six months is a long time to be figuring out what your next move is. I mean, I don't know about you, but I haven't. I certainly have not heard of anyone who's been looking for a new job or thinking about starting a business for that amount of time. [00:23:00] Have you? Like six months? Six months is an eternity. How could you just. I don't I don't blame anyone who would just go immediately, go back to ripping people off because, gosh, your options are just so limited, you know? Anyway, this also doesn't make sense. Like how how could he actually do do this? His name and face had been everywhere, right? It's not like he could just walk around as Ellie Weinstein and say, please do business with me and ignore my past and my absurdly [00:23:30] good luck. I'm a changed man. No, he couldn't do that. He had to make up a name. So he made up a name. Mike Koenig, and he had some help. In 2020. Joel Wittels, then operating as a unlicensed supplier of prescription drugs to pharmacies, met Richard Curry, [00:24:00] a fellow unlicensed medical businessman. They did some deals together, and when medical supplies became the hottest commodity ever seen during COVID, Wittels told Curry about a new business that he and a friend, Ari Bromberg, had started, and it was called Optimus Investments.

Caleb Newquist: Optimus would be, quote, dedicated to pursuing and executing deals for personal protective [00:24:30] equipment. End of quote stuff like masks, gloves, hand sanitizer. It was the middle of 2021, after all. Those were. Those were. Those were hot. Couldn't be hotter. The masks, the gloves, the hand sanitizer, the Lysol. And because it was the middle of 2021, these deals started getting really big, really fast. When Optimus needed $6 million to do a deal for 23 million medical masks, Richard Curry [00:25:00] started tapping his network, which included Chris Anderson, another aspiring entrepreneur and business owner. Bloomberg reported that after raising nearly $5 million, Curry emailed all the investors to explain the next steps. Quote, the money was being sent to Optimus, then to an escrow account in Israel, and from there to a broker called Tariq in Turkey, where the masks would be produced. Curry followed up with another [00:25:30] email that included a video where he said, quote, just wanted to share with you this link of our masks being loaded on the plane. 5.4 million masks by some serendipity. You are involved in this. It's real. It's happening. Isn't that cool? Yeah, sure. Cool. And while Optimus was led by Wittels and Bromberg, the key to these deals was Optimus [00:26:00] logistics coordinator and Purchase Order Procurement officer, which that's quite a title.

Caleb Newquist: And you might be wondering who this person with the mouthful of a title is. Yes, this is Mike Koenig. So back to Bloomberg. Quote. It was Koenig who had the network of government agencies, Turkish factory owners, Israeli lawyers, brokers and [00:26:30] middlemen that Optimus needed. He was always cagey about his counterparties on the deals. If everyone knew who his contacts were. He told the others they could reverse engineer him out of business. Okay. The deals kept getting bigger, which meant Optimus needed Currie and Anderson to raise more money. So Currie and Anderson started their own business, Trian Management Group. They tapped both of their networks to invest in deals, raising [00:27:00] tens of millions of dollars. And when the deals paid off, investors just rolled their profits back into the next one. Currie regularly shared information with their investors, showing them, for example, videos of factories over email showing machines stamping face masks out of sheets of blue fabric. He wrote in one email quote, I no longer look at this as a quick investment opportunity. This is something potentially has major legs. The partnership [00:27:30] with Optimus and the incredible and I mean incredible connections we have here are building towards something amazing. In the middle of 2022. Optimus was brokering a deal for 100 million masks between a manufacturer in Turkey and a Haverstraw, New York based company called Harvard Medical Supplies. No, it had nothing to do with Harvard University.

Caleb Newquist: Okay. Harvard Medical Supplies was repped by [00:28:00] Gary Gershon, who Curry and Anderson met in a meeting brokered by Koenig. Pretty soon, however, a couple of Curry and Anderson's investors pointed out some concerning things about Gary Gershon. The first thing is that Gershon is a Hebrew version of the name Gary. So Gary Gershon was just Gary. Gary. So however [00:28:30] weird you think the name Phillip Phillips is Gary. Gary definitely feels weirder. Okay, second thing was that while one of the investors had not heard of Gary Gershon, this person did have his phone number in their phone, which is weird. I mean, I don't know, like these guys are investors with, you know, the try on guys. I don't know, and they're maybe just sharing this information. Who knows. Anyway, that [00:29:00] number, the number in their phone belonged to a guy by the name of Gershon Barkan. Hope I'm saying that right. Gershon. Barkan. Who's. Who's that guy, you ask? He's a guy who pleaded guilty to running a Ponzi scheme in 2013. So with this new information, the trying guys, Richard Currie, Chris Anderson, they were a little worried. But Koenig reassured them that Gary Squared [00:29:30] wasn't handling any money And just needed to get this deal done so he could get back on his feet. But there were other signs, too, including this doozy quote a spreadsheet that had been sent to Anderson and Currie by Joel Wittels detailing Optimus's cost of good expenditures.

Caleb Newquist: The top line read mystery expenses against a figure $41,028,233.05. [00:30:00] Now. Mystery expenses. Mystery expenses. $41 million in mystery expenses. Maybe I'm wrong, but a company dealing in medical supplies should not have mystery expenses. The only type of business that should have mystery expenses is whatever the fuck Scooby-Doo and the gang are always up to. Later [00:30:30] that same year, 2022, the Trion guys met with another of Koenig's associates, Ayla Hattab, a manufacturing entrepreneur who wanted Trion to invest in his business. Sanatan plastic all right. These three guys, they were already acquainted. Hattab had connections in Southeast Asia that were critical to completing a first aid kit deal that the Trion guys had raised millions of dollars [00:31:00] for. It was at this 2022 meeting where Richard Curry, Chris Henderson, the Trion guys, they mentioned a separate deal, one for baby formula that they had been involved in. But Hattab knew that deal to be fake because Koenig had told him to lie about it in the past. Little did Hattab know, but when he had lied about that deal, he had been lying to Curry and Anderson, [00:31:30] the guys he was meeting right at that second. Apparently it was part of a phone call, and he didn't necessarily know who he was talking to. So from here, things start to unravel pretty quickly. Here's Blumberg again. Quote. We started going back and forth on what was real and what wasn't, Hatab said. What Hatab told Anderson and Currie horrified them.

Caleb Newquist: The baby formula deal was fake. One of their biggest mask deals [00:32:00] was fake. And the first aid kit deal that was also fake. What Hatab told these guys next was actually even worse. And that was this. That instead of investing the millions of dollars that they had raised into these projects, into factories or whatever to create these medical supplies, Koenig had, quote, wired hatab around $63,000 to [00:32:30] set up a ghost line with the scare quotes. A contact of Hotjobs in Vietnam procured enough medical gear to fill a small number of kits, and hired temporary staff to pretend to be factory workers. The whole thing was filmed and the video sent to Curry and Anderson. Later, Hattab arranged the purchase of 5000 empty boxes wrapped and put on pallets to stand in for genuine orders. A little bit of a crazy [00:33:00] Eddie thing going on there. Nice. Oh, and, uh, Hattab told them one more thing. He told them that Mike Koenig was actually Ellie Weinstein. With all this new information. Anderson and Curry demanded a meeting with Koenig, who they now knew to be Weinstein. Before the meeting, though, they hid recording devices on their [00:33:30] person to create some insurance for themselves. It was at that meeting that Weinstein admitted that he had been lying about his identity. On the recording, he can be heard saying, I finagled and Ponzi and lied to people to cover us. But then he asked the train guys to keep a secret.

Caleb Newquist: He told them that the best way for them to make their investors whole was to help him. And believe it or not, they ultimately agreed [00:34:00] to do that. They were going to continue recording conversations, but they were going to keep this going. But by November 2022, they couldn't keep up with the redemption requests they were getting from investors. As you may recall, inflation had been surging for months that year and people were bugging out. Uh, man. Good times. Right? Good good good pandemic times. So it's really [00:34:30] not a surprise that people would have been looking to get a little more liquid. Eventually, the triangles Anderson Curry, they halted their redemptions, which, as listeners of the show know, not good. Bad sign. Really bad sign. Trian investors began to revolt and started talking amongst themselves to see what they could learn about Anderson and Curry and what they had been telling each of them individually. Finally, [00:35:00] in the spring of 2023, one investor filed a whistleblower report with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which in turn sent a subpoena to Anderson and Curry. They quickly lawyered up, went to the FBI, agreed to plead guilty and cooperate. Just a couple months later, on July 18th, 2023, FBI agents arrested Elie Weinstein at his home in February 2024. When the indictment came down, the US attorney charged that Weinstein had caused over $44 [00:35:30] million in losses. Currie, Anderson, Wittels, Hatab, and another Coconspirator all agreed to plead guilty and testify at trial against Weinstein and Ari Bromberg.

Caleb Newquist: As of this recording, their sentences are pending. After a seven week trial in early 2025, Weinstein and Bromberg were convicted of securities fraud, wire fraud, money laundering, and conspiracy counts. Bromberg was later sentenced to 12 years. At sentencing in November 2025, [00:36:00] Weinstein received a 37 year sentence. Over the course of two decades, he had stolen over a quarter of $1 billion. One of the people who had led Elie Weinstein's clemency push was a fellow Orthodox Jew guy by the name of Yitz Grossman. And when Weinstein was arrested for this second fraud, Grossman told Bloomberg, quote, I still feel sick and embarrassed to speak with some of these people who gave me a letter to help [00:36:30] out this family. My conclusion is he's sick and he can't control himself. He's a deal junkie. He thinks he's smarter than everybody else. Weinstein's lawyer says that he maintains his innocence on these charges, and will continue to vigorously defend himself on appeal. All right. Did we learn anything? I don't think there's anything too remarkable about this fraud that we haven't covered before. You know, we have a close knit community. Victims [00:37:00] who are of a shared faith, uh, being conned by someone who is part of that community. Um, there's been lots of examples of that, whether it's a small town or a shared religion or, you know, some other close knit, uh, you know, group of people.

Caleb Newquist: They are susceptible, uh, because of the trust. The trust gets exploited. And this was no different. You know, this is a good old fashioned affinity fraud, right? Um, what [00:37:30] does make this story remarkable is that our perpetrator, Ellie Weinstein, had earned a pardon, and then he went ahead and committed another fraud in pretty short order. Now, on a prior episode, episode 89 about OZY media, we know that the key person in that case, Carlos Watson, also got a pardon from President Trump. And as of this recording, he has not gotten himself into [00:38:00] any trouble. So way to go, Carlos. Keep up the good work. But, Ellie. Oh, Ellie. He made a mockery of all these people who helped him and the clemency process in general. Um, and like I said, we're not going to go into executive clemency in depth in this episode, but just maybe I'll make a few observations. As my friend John Weil would say a few observations. First, [00:38:30] Elie Weinstein's first case was brought during the Obama administration. It was mentioned in a press release issued by the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force and the U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey in December 2010. Now, if you don't know or don't remember what the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force is, it was established in 2009 by the Obama administration, and in the executive order [00:39:00] that established it, it says that the mission was to provide advice to the Attorney General for the investigation and prosecution of cases of bank mortgage loan and lending fraud, securities and commodities fraud, retirement plan fraud, mail and wire fraud, tax crimes, money laundering, false Claims Act violations, unfair competition, discrimination and other financial crimes and violations when such cases are determined by the Attorney General for purposes of this order to be significant.

Caleb Newquist: Okay, so, uh, even in the most cynical reading, this [00:39:30] sounds that sounds like an effort to prosecute white collar crime. Seriously, financial crimes can hurt lots of people, as we have established over the course of the show. Uh, even before the show that was widely established, uh, and the country was in the throes of a financial crisis. And so. Even if you have no faith in the government whatsoever and, [00:40:00] uh, especially, uh, the Obama administration, that sounds like a genuine effort to hold people who commit these crimes accountable, right? It became a priority. Okay, okay. That's the first observation. Second observation. During President Trump's first term, he issued an executive order establishing a task force on market integrity and consumer fraud, which, according to an article [00:40:30] on the center for Financial Stability's website, that's a think tank. Uh, that executive order terminated and replaced the Obama administration task force, and also went on to say that the executive order that established it was now revoked. I mean, that seems like a weird thing to do.

Caleb Newquist: I mean, if we all agree that big financial crimes that victimize hundreds, maybe thousands of people, if we all agree that that's bad and that we also all agree [00:41:00] that the people who commit those crimes, that they should be held accountable, then that seems like a weird thing to do. Observation. Okay. Third observation President Trump. I think it's safe to say, has a pretty healthy dislike for President Obama. And knowing what we know about Donald Trump, which is to say that he is mercurial, [00:41:30] petty, vindictive, obnoxious, spiteful, looks bad, eats bad, smells bad, talks bad, walks bad, dresses bad, crosses his arm like a snotty little kid, frowns a lot and would step over your mother and mine just to grab your wife or girlfriend's ass. I don't think anyone would say that he, Trump, would be above granting clemency to people that the Obama administration prosecuted, if for no other reason other than because the Obama administration [00:42:00] were the ones who prosecuted those people. In fact, I think virtually everyone, even those of you who like Trump, would say no, that's exactly what he would do. That's exactly what he would do. Right. Part of me thinks that Trump, if he could, would bring Osama bin laden back to life just despite Obama. If he could, he would do it. I think that's fair. Okay. As [00:42:30] I mentioned earlier, there are two excellent New York Times stories that go into great detail about how Weinstein and other white collar criminals, uh, completely circumvented the normal process for seeking clemency.

Caleb Newquist: Um, and used their connections to the Trump White House to, to earn clemency. And I'll just say final observation. It is not a great look for a society when people with money, people with connections, [00:43:00] people with influence are prioritized for mercy over people who have none of those things. That's really not mercy at all. That's callous. That's malevolent. And now maybe it's American. That's it for this episode. And remember those widows and orphans? They had it coming. They had it coming. If you have questions, comments or suggestions [00:43:30] for stories, drop me a line at oh My Fraud at CPE. Com. All my fraud is created, written, produced and hosted by me Caleb Newquist. Zach Frank is my co-producer, audio engineer, music supervisor. Laura Hobbs designed our logo. Rate review and subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts. If you listen on your mark. That's where you get the CPE. It's a new year. Never too early to get started. Okay. Or try to, you know, just don't backdate it. You know, don't do don't listen to the episodes now and then say, oh, no, I did it last year. That's, you know, that's fraud. [00:44:00] I don't want you to end up on the show. Okay. All right. Join us next time for more avarice, swindlers and scams from stories that will make you say, oh, my fraud.