Former U.S. president and 2024 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump lifts weights as he speaks at a Republican volunteer recruiting event at the Fervent Calvary church in Las Vegas, Nevada, July 8, 2023.
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WASHINGTON — A New Jersey man sentenced to prison for running a massive Ponzi scheme, whose sentence was commuted by Donald Trump on the final day of his presidency, was charged Wednesday with orchestrating a similar scam.
Eli Weinstein and four accomplices He is accused Overseeing a new Ponzi scheme that prosecutors say has defrauded 150 victims of more than $35 million.
Weinstein has now been accused three times of defrauding investors.
The first time was in 2013, when he pleaded guilty to 45 counts of fraud and conspiracy to steal more than $200 million from investors. In 2015, he pleaded guilty in a second case, this time to wire fraud while on trial for a Ponzi scheme.
Weinstein had already served eight years of his sentence when Trump granted him clemency in 2021. He was sentenced to 24 years in prison, becoming one of 143 people pardoned or commuted in the final hours of Trump’s administration.
His release came to the end of a costly lobbying campaign that included people close to Trump, including attorney Alan Dershowitz, who claimed Weinstein never had a fair trial.
The campaign to get Trump to clemency deal with Weinstein has since become new york times storywhich detailed how Weinstein’s allies paid to gain access to various Trump insiders.
On the day the sentence was commuted, the White House described Weinstein as “a father of seven and a loving husband.”
An official statement on his reduced sentence said: “He will have the strong support of members of his community and faith upon his release.”
At a news conference announcing the latest charges Wednesday, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said, “Weinstein started where he left off: stealing millions of dollars from investors through a web of lies and deceit.”
according to criminal complaintWeinstein and his associates created fake investment funds and told potential investors their money would be used to “invest in lucrative deals, including COVID-19 masks, scarce baby formula and first aid kits to Ukraine, among others.”
To hide his true identity and criminal past, Weinstein used the name “Mike Konig” when communicating with investors.
The Securities and Exchange Commission filed criminal charges against Weinstein on Wednesday, in addition to the criminal charges Weinstein faces. file a civil lawsuit He and five other alleged co-conspirators were charged.
“Time and again, the defendants took funds from unsuspecting investors for false trades and shuffled funds to pay early investors, creating the false impression that they were making real profits from those trades,” Antonia Apps, director of the SEC’s New York regional office, said in a statement Wednesday.