Eliyahu “Eli” Weinstein, 51, of Lakewood, New Jersey, was sentenced to 37 years in prison. The sentence was well-deserved because he was convicted of committing the now-infamous $35 million fraud on investors. In February 2016, in U.S. District Judge Michael Shipp’s courtroom in Trenton, NJ, U.S. F-6 sentencing. This is the third time that Weinstein has been separately convicted in a New Jersey federal court for similarly fraudulent undertakings.
Weinstein, who works under the pseudonym Mike Konig, was convicted in March of this year. Prosecutors revealed how he and his coworkers misled investors. They lied to get their illegal access to lucrative contracts for scarce medical supplies, baby formula, and other first-aid kits meant for wartime Ukraine. The plan defrauded thousands of people looking to invest their dollars in what they thought were real, viable businesses.
The court’s ruling came shortly after Weinstein was handed down a total of 24-year prison sentence for previous fraud schemes. These cases led to investors losing an estimated $230 million combined. His initial conviction was rooted in a real estate Ponzi scheme. In his second Ponzi scheme, he perpetrated even more fraudulent acts while on pretrial release. The egregious nature of his conduct and the recidivism led to Judge Shipp’s significant sentence.
In addition to his prison sentence, Weinstein is ordered to pay $44,294,803 in restitution to his victims. This payment should go out right away. This financial commitment further highlights the enormous damages suffered by harmed investors who were misled by his deceptive schemes.
After years of suffering through the legal process, Weinstein got a short-lived break. On January 19, 2021, former President Donald Trump commuted his original life sentence to time served. Even with that conviction, he found a way back into the judicial system, showing that there are still effects from his actions.