Sentenced to 845 Years – The Thief That Never Stole Anything
By: Robert Turner
Tags: Supreme Court, Legal, America, Sholam Weiss, Fraud

Sentenced to 845 Years – The Thief That Never Stole Anything

The white collar ‘criminal’ that never stole any money and actually showed a profit

Sholam Weiss could easily apply to the Guinness’s Book of World Records. He holds the unpleasant distinction of being sentenced to 845 years in prison. A record for any white collar criminal in the US.

He has served 20 of these and his release date is scheduled for 2734. You read that right. 2734.

You might ask what heinous crime Mr Weiss committed to deserve such an unusual sentence. Did he massacre a group of elederly church goers with a machete?

Perhaps he was caught selling the organs of abducted street urchins to transplant hopefuls? Could he have lied about his child’s grades on a college application? No, it’s far worse. Far mor heinous.

On February 15, 2000, the Middle District Court of Florida (Orlando) sentenced Weiss, to 845 years – later reduced to 835 years – in prison for racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering.

The ruling also included restitution of $125,016,656, and a fine of $123,399,910, in connection with the collapse of National Heritage Life Insurance Company (NHLC).

This judgement set Weiss up as possibly the biggest fall-guy in the history of white collar crime. His crimes might sound terrible based on the judgement, but facts have emerged that cast serious doubt on the original judgement and sentencing.

No money was actually lost. None. Weiss claims – and this is substantiated – that the satisfaction of restitution was satisfied with the proceeds of mortgages that he bought for the benefit of NHLC at a substantial discount from their face value (53% discount).

The receivers settled these mortgages and collected the full face value of the mortgages, realizing a large profit for the insurance company. It turns out Sholam actually made NHLC a lot of money. No one was defrauded as a result of his actions.

All his co-accused who had perpetrated earlier fraud in the company before Weiss’ arrival on the scene made plea bargains for reduced sentences. Few served longer than three years.

All Weiss was guilty of was assisting them to cover up their initial crimes.

Three weeks after sentencing the Court appointed receivers had retrieved a total of between 175 and 200 million dollars – showing a profit of between 50 and 100 million – thanks to Weiss’s investment in the mortgages. Despite this it took the government 16 years to file a satisfaction of restitution.

Someone had clearly painted Sholam Weiss as the fall-guy, and no doubt aware of his impending doom, Weiss decided to do what any rational human would. He fled the country before sentence was passed.

He was caught a few months later in Austria and after a protracted extradition battle was returned to America in 2002 to serve out his 840 years.

To add further insult to injury, a few months after his sentencing, US law changed. The maximum sentence that can now be applied to cases like Sholam Weiss’ is 36 months.

Keep in mind that at the time of his incarceration in 2002, all the money, including the profits, had already been recovered. Not difficult as it was tied up in the investments Weiss had made on behalf of the company.

The Austrian Government had agreed to his extradition on the condition that he was to be re-sentenced and given the right of full appeal.

America reneged on this agreement – sadly par for the course – and the Austrian Government have petitioned three consecutive Presidents, including Trump, Obama and Bush to commute Weiss’ sentence to time served.

These requests have fallen on deaf ears and in what can only be described as one of the great travesties of America’s convoluted, corrupt and broken legal system, Weiss remains incarcerated.

Weiss is currently serving his sentence at the medium security prison, FCI Otisville, in Otisville, New York. His projected release date is October 10, 2738.

To read more about this case you can follow the links below which provide interesting evidence on the case and a deeper background on Sholam Weiss.

Further Reading

Freedom and Justice for Sholam Weiss

You can also follow a family account for Sholam on Twitter @SholamWeiss to keep up to date with developments.