Trump Frees Life Insurance Fraudster Serving 835 Years
Jan. 20—A former Monsey man serving an 835-year sentence at Otisville federal prison for financial fraud was among the 143 people given pardons and commuted sentences by President Trump early Wednesday morning before he left office.
Sholam Weiss, 66, was convicted of racketeering, money laundering and other crimes in federal court in Florida in 1999 and given what is believed to be the longest sentence in history for a white-collar conviction. He was alleged to have helped defraud the National Heritage Life Insurance Co. of $450 million, leading to its collapse in 1994.
A White House statement that misspelled Weiss' first name as "Shalom" said that Trump had commuted Weiss' sentence because it was unduly harsh, he already has served more than 18 years and he is in poor health.
The explanation echoed the pleas of supporters who had crusaded for Weiss' release, arguing that his prison term — originally 845 years and later reduced on appeal by 10 years — was wildly disproportionate, especially since he had repaid the $125 million he was convicted of stealing.
Adding their voices to that chorus in the last year were former federal prosecutors and judges and a host of elected officials. Last month, Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, D-Cold Spring, and other House members sent Trump a letter that repeated the view that Weiss was given an epic sentence as retaliation for rejecting a five-year plea deal from prosecutors and insisting on fighting the charges in a trial.
"The disparity between the sentence that was offered in the plea deal and the sentence received after the trial for committing a white-collar crime is unjust and unreasonable," the letter read.
Another letter sought sympathy by noting that Weiss has five children and 33 grandchildren, has suffered colon cancer and undergone heart surgeries while in prison, and remains in "extremely poor health" with a host of ailments.
How soon Weiss would be released from the medium-security prison in western Orange County was unclear on Wednesday.
Weiss fled the country after his 1999 conviction and remained on the lam for almost three years until U.S. authorities won a battle to extradite him from Austria. He began serving his time in 2002.
Weiss, an Orthodox Jew originally from Brooklyn, donated up to $2 million for the construction of a men's school in Kiryas Joel in the 1990s, Kiryas Joel leaders and Weiss' attorney confirmed to the Times Herald-Record in 2002. His attorney said then that Weiss likely used his own wealth and not ill-gotten gains to make that donation.
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