Kosher Hot Dog Swindler Sentenced To 15 Years

Arnold Zaler took nearly $2.5 million from people who trusted him, and ended up stealing their retirement savings.

Federal judge in Denver sentences hot-dog swindler to 15 years
By Felisa Cardona • The Denver Post

A kosher meat salesman who left a trail of victims on two continents was sentenced to 15 years in prison Friday in a decision cheered by those who were fooled by the smooth-talking hot-dog salesman.

Arnold Zaler, 60, lured victims mostly from his own Jewish community, promising he would pay them back for their investments in his business.

Instead, he took nearly $2.5 million from people who trusted him, and ended up stealing their retirement savings. One woman was forced to sell her home to make up the shortfall.

Zaler and his attorney, Mitchell Baker, tried to convince Senior U.S. District Judge John L. Kane that Zaler has a mental illness. Zaler also apologized to his victims and his family.

"What I have learned is I obviously have failed and there is something wrong with me," Zaler told the judge. "I tried to be a big shot, a leader. I wanted to be a leader and look what I have done."

Kane disregarded the eight-year sentence recommended by prosecutors and probation officers and nearly doubled Zaler's prison term because he has a history of conning people.

Kane also ordered that Zaler pay nearly $2.5 million in restitution.

"He is a hard-core recidivist, and sentences of lesser time imposed on him in the past have utterly failed at preventing further crimes of fraud and deception," Kane said. "He deserves a sentence where he is too old to offend again."

Otti Seiden, a Denver victim who lost his retirement savings to Zaler, said he is satisfied with the sentence.

"I have not been out to dinner, breakfast or lunch in months," Seiden said. "There is no traveling because my retirement is blown."

Swindler a "smooth talker"

Seiden called Zaler a "smooth talker" who always promised to pay money back, but left victims in Colorado, California, Arizona and Israel.

Several people who say they were conned by Zaler came to watch his sentencing hearing, but did not want their names associated with the case.

"There are at least eight people that did not get into the victim list for restitution," Seiden said. "That had to be another $1 million."

Zaler owned Zaler's Kosher Meats and had contracts to operate concession stands at the Pepsi Center and Invesco Field at Mile High.

Zaler told investors he needed funds to expand his business, and he showed them false and forged purchase orders from both sports venues for thousands of hot dogs in order to secure the loans.

Ryan Thomas Smith, a former corporate salesman for Kroenke Sports Enterprises, the company that operates the Pepsi Center, helped Zaler with the fraud by signing fake letters and confirming orders that did not exist to investors.

Smith was fired from Kroenke and pleaded guilty to bank fraud in federal court last year. He was sentenced to time served and ordered to pay $2 million in restitution.

Zaler also forged other people's signatures on documents to advance the scheme.

He used the signature of Steve Hall, an employee of Centerplate, the company that operated concession stands at Invesco, court records show.

Hall contacted the FBI in December 2006 and told agents that Zaler was asking him to create a false purchase order. At the direction of the FBI, Hall pretended to go along with Zaler's scheme.

In February 2008, Zaler was indicted on more than 30 counts related to the hot-dog scam.

A judge ordered Zaler to give up his passport and told him he could not leave Colorado.

But Zaler used an Israeli travel document to leave the country in March 2008. He returned to the U.S. in February after negotiating a surrender with federal agents.

In 1997, Zaler had been convicted of similar crimes in Arizona. He served five years of a 14-year fraud sentence.

Not the "Madoff of Denver"

"Those two cases, like the present one, grew out of schemes to defraud several victims and involved professional sports teams and fraudulent purchase orders," prosecutor Thomas O'Rourke wrote in court documents.

Defense lawyer Baker argued that Zaler's dishonesty was motivated by a need to keep his business afloat, and said he is not the "Bernie Madoff of Denver."

"This scheme had no chance of success and was never going to make him any money," Baker said.

But the judge was not buying it.

"That is a tale that is told more often than not by fraudsters and it means nothing," Kane said.

Previous Posts: 1, 2. 3. 4.

[Hat Tip: Joel Katz.]

Comments

[Hometown Postville]

Ahhhh.... I was just too ignorant to know what I was doing?????

[reuven sabel]

why dont we prosecute moshe finkel who in 2006 was found to be selling non-kosher meat as kosher under the name of shevach kosher meats to yeshivas and caterers and in the meat department of hatzlacha grocery in monsey, new york? his crime is a lot worse than zaler's or rubashkin's. because of moshe finkel all of the souls who ate his meat became treif and all of the kitchen's where his meat was cooked became treif. everybody in monsey had to kasher their kitchens because of moshe finkel, but my kitchen is still only partially kashered and my soul will always be treif because of moshe finkel. i had to buy a new stove and all new kitchen utensils because of moshe finkel and my wife kashered the fleishig sink, but my kitchen countertops have not been kashered yet and i have a succa full of old kitchen utensils that i dont know what to do with. my wife says that my kitchen countertops are treif even though they had been replaced for pesach 2006 and i never bought meat from that place afterwards. my wife says that all my fleishig utensils are treif, even my 6 bread making machines that were never used to bake anything but bread and parve kugel and even my chalah baking pans that were never used except for washing them together with fleishig utensils after they had been in the mikva. all because of moshe finkel. when will he ever be prosecuted for the fraud that he committed which was a lot worse than arnold zaler's fraud and alot worse than the fraud that rubashkin is alleged to have committed?

[BaltimoreYid]

What is it about the kosher meat business that attracts all these thieves?

[Sam The Man]

Baltimore Yid: the answer is MONEY. Kosher meat is expensive, or at least pricier than non-Kosher meat. So if you buy non-Kosher meat you can sell it for a nice profit.