"Between the [Eliyahu] Weinstein case and another series of criminal cases that I have, I probably had every leading citizen of the municipality of Lakewood through these [courtroom] doors [almost all testifying as character witnesses for the thieves]."
Above: Alex Schleider, right; Eliyahu Weinstein, left
A few excerpts from the transcript, which is posted in full as a PDF file below:
Judge:
Page 27: "Between the [Eliyahu] Weinstein case and another series of criminal cases that I have, I probably had every leading citizen of the municipality of Lakewood through these doors.” [I.e., almost all testifying as character witnesses for the thieves.]
Page 62: "We've got a tight-knit community who swears by its desire and its history of centuries of community involvement and help and, nevertheless, we have affinity fraud running rampant. In this particular case, $2.8 million, but in total, just with this one vortex, $240 million.” [In other words, Schleider stole $2.8 million from the victim and Weinstein, et al, stole $240 million from a series of victims.]
Alex Schleider:
Page 40: “…[A]t the time I had every reason to believe I was doing the right thing. I only wanted to make money for the Chambers [the victim and his family], for myself and do proper business ethics. I did not know what I was doing. I can say that with full conviction to the Court, but I do apologize to them because I know that I caused this loss to them in a big way and I feel terrible. I live with this every single day, your Honor.
“Subsequently, the business transactions day after, I cannot say the same. My genuine did not change, neither did my level of integrity. I made misrepresentations in the
frenzy of a moment that are unexplainable and unfathomable. I was gripped by a force unbeknownst to me. That's the force, this vortex called Eli Weinstein and this Bermuda Triangle with all these people around.
“I made a poor judgment, inexcusable and for that I lost a friend, business partner and his lifesavings. I am very sorry for that. There are no words to express my utter
disappointment in myself, the pain and disgrace I feel for what I've caused Gerald Chambers and his family. If it is the last thing I do, I plan on paying back full restitution to him and his family.…”
[Despite that seemingly contrite statement, Schleider is fighting the Chambers family in civil court to try to avoid giving back what he stole.]
Alex Schleider’s wife Linda:
Pages 58 and 59: “…I can tell you that there's everything that Alex does, we do together. Every business decision, it sounds ridiculous, what does he need his wife for? But we do, we do it together and when it came to this situation, it was -- he was -- he would leave the house but knowing that he's not going to do it any more and he come back and did it. Just mesmerized. It was the first time ever, ever, that he would do this, ever. So it's not something that happened because he became bad and decided we would go and do it and we had to make sure that he understands that he shouldn't do that again. It was a case which I don't have to explain to you because you know, because it was a situation that wasn't like oh, he went off and did something and there was no other circumstances. There were circumstances, it was Eli Weinstein.…”
The entire transcript as a PDF file. Please right click to open in a new browser window or tab and read there, or left click to download and read in your stand-alone PDF reader (Adobe reader, for example):
Download Schleider, Alex sentencing transcript 12-8-2014
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