New York – WexTrust Capital LLC co-founder Joseph Shereshevsky was sentenced to 21 years and 10 months in prison after pleading guilty to defrauding victims of at least $9.2 million as part of a Ponzi scheme.
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Shereshevsky, 54, and WexTrust co-founder Steven Byers were charged in 2008 with lying to investors in their now-collapsed real estate fund. Many of their victims were members of the Orthodox Jewish community. The penalty was at the top of the range suggested by federal guidelines. Byers was sentenced to more than 13 years in April.
“Mr. Shereshevsky very much had a controlling role in this criminal enterprise,” U.S. Circuit Judge Denny Chin said in a hearing today in Manhattan. “Although he purports to be a religious man, he preyed on his own community.”
Shereshevsky, the former chief operating officer of Chicago-based WexTrust, pleaded guilty to mail fraud, conspiracy and securities fraud in February. Chin said today that victims may have lost more than $20 million.
Prosecutors claimed Byers and Shereshevsky told investors they planned to buy residential and commercial properties in Illinois, North Carolina, Wisconsin, New York and elsewhere. Instead, they paid investor returns and financed unrelated projects, the government said
Earlier in today’s hearing, Shereshevsky admitted that he had destroyed the lives of some WexTrust investors.
“The bottom line is that I knew what I did was wrong and I did it anyway,” he said.
Shereshevsky choked up at times while reading his statement and asked the court for mercy.
Chin also order him to pay restitution of $7.89 million and to forfeit $9.2 million from his criminal activities.
He should have raped(or even perhaps killed) people instead, and he would have gotten a lesser sentence.
Oy reb Yossel!
This is a far cry from when you gave a chabura at bmg 30 years ago!
Good for him!!! but it doesn’t help me much! I lost 200k with Joe, guys learn what i learned the hard way, be very careful before you invest money with people, i went crazy over how brilliant Joe was! Fancy offices… Amazing video conferencing systems… bla bla bla
I’d put him next door to scumbag Levi Aron
what a shame!!!!
Perhaps we honor giovirim too much, which encourages some to crave the kovod even at this terrible cost .oy vey gevald
Too many frum Yidden behaving poorly!
There are limits to the number of many bad actors for whom the Agudah/Moetzes Gadolei can cover up and/or shnor money for their families.
Something eventually has got to give, and it will not be very pretty!
So the Frum guy gets 21 years, while the other one gets 13 years, for the same crime. And we still believe a frum yid gets justice in this country.
do ur research-“the other” guy was smart enough to realize that he was in huge trouble so he made a deal and confessed and told the truth. the “frum” guy thought he would get away with it (again) but that’s not the way it works-too late for “frum” guy, nothing to do with religion, just brains.
The truth is that the Shulchan Aruch says that, even today, beis din retains power to give out corporal, and capital punishments, even for crimes that don’t deserve it from the Torah.
If not for those meddling gentile courts, we would chop off his hand or execute him to deter the mass theft that’s infecting the frumme world!
White collar crime today in America is worst than rape, murder, aggravate robbery; it is part of the leftist thought the rich are bad and the bad are just miss understood, or never had the opportunity. I do not codon his behaviour but he does not desire 21 years nor does Pollard desire life or the 25 years he spent in Jail while spies get out of jail in exchanges.
AND he clearly decided that shereshevsky should go to jail for more time.
Hashem directs the judges decisions as well.
Or does your Emuna not extend that far?
And expatriateOwl; perhaps uou can explain the Moetzes’ role in covering up for criminals; it sounds fascinating.
I know someone who lost 1 million. He got back 10,000 from the receiver. Wextrust did this to support a diamond mine in Africa that bled/stole 40-50 mil from them. So he robbed from Frum jews (90% of his victims were Frum Jews) to enrich himself. Two faced Gonif that knows how to learn. His learning didnt include Choshen Mishpad. He ruined many lives. These were supposed to be blue chip real estate deals, not speculation, and he had all the documents to show for it. Chassanim, old people on fixed income, middle income people, all lost to his lying and scheming. 21 years wont bring the money back, and it may not even teach him a lesson, but it may teach someone else a lesson.
this person did so many things wrong–he stole, he lied, he made an unbelievable chilul Hashem. all under the guise of his uniform–If you dress the part–ACT the part
i was offered to invest in this defunct company by a relative who was hired to bring in customers. he was not aware of any wrongdoing, but after a bit he wasn’t getting his commisions. i was sent a prospectus of the company’s activities. it seemd like the mney was in high interest bridge-loans for real estate deals. given the norm of interest rates for businesses of this sort the rates they claimed to be able to charge seemd too high, so i politely declined to invest, not withstanding that my wife called a wealthy person in our community who invested with them and said he felt it was very safe. the rest is history. i shmecked something wrong, aka Hashem decided that i should not lose money this way.
in any case, the goyishe hashpo’oh of get rich quick, enjoy olom hazeh to the hilt in an ephemeral world is seeping in too much. when looking for a shidduch for your wonderful bas Torah don’t worry so much about the prospective chosson’s sharfe kop, etc. ask if he attends mussar seder, davens erlich comes on time to daven, and any other indicators for yiras Shomayim. Yiras Shomayim separates the men from the boys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!