Tampa, FL – Former fugitive Sholam Weiss has been dealt another blow as the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit upheld his 1999 convictions on 78 counts of racketeering, wire fraud, interstate transportation of stolen funds, money laundering, and other offenses.
The scheme involved Weiss’s participation in a plan to defraud National Heritage Life Insurance Company, causing the company a loss of more than $125 million. Weiss worked with certain NHLIC insiders to hide the losses from company executives and state insurance regulators while enriching himself with the company’s assets.
At his nine-month trial in 1999, Weiss absconded while the jury was deliberating. The Honorable Patricia C. Fawsett, United States District Judge, sentenced Weiss in his absence to serve 845 years’ imprisonment, imposed a $123,399,910 fine, ordered him to pay $125,016,656 in restitution, and ordered him to forfeit money and property.
Weiss argued on appeal that his convictions should be vacated because prosecutors had served a subpoena on one of his attorneys, Robert Leventhal, thereby disqualifying Leventhal from representing Weiss at trial. However, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals held that there is no evidence that the government acted in bad faith when it subpoenaed Leventhal’s testimony.
The Court also said that Leventhal could not have represented Weiss at trial anyway because Weiss had created a conflict of interest. He had used Leventhal to submit documents and recordings to investigators, and those documents and recordings, unbeknownst to Leventhal, were fraudulent.
The Court also rejected Weiss’s contention that the district court had erred when instructing the jury on the wire fraud counts of the indictment. The appeal was handled by former Assistant United States Attorney Judy K. Hunt and Assistant United States Attorney Linda Julin McNamara.
The underlying case was prosecuted by Hunt and former Assistant United States Attorney Thomas W. Turner (now a judge in the Ninth Circuit Court of Florida). The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the United States Postal Inspection Service, and the Internal Revenue Service.
Defendant: Sholam Weiss
Criminal Charges: Racketeering, Wire Fraud, Interstate Transportation of Stolen Funds, Money Laundering
City and State: Tampa, FL
Exact Date: 1999
Sentence: 845 years’ imprisonment, $123,399,910 fine, $125,016,656 in restitution, forfeiture of money and property
Dollar Amounts: $125 million loss to National Heritage Life Insurance Company, $123,399,910 fine, $125,016,656 in restitution
Related Federal Cases
- Patrick Merrill Brody, Wire Fraud and Money Laundering, Utah 2013 · Florida
- Damion Bryan Barrett, Wire Fraud, Florida 2008 · Florida
- Michael Szafranski, Conspiracy to Commit Wire Fraud, Florida 2009 · Florida
- Pavel Sosa Medina, Money Laundering, Florida 2014 · Florida
- Louis A. Francois, Wire Fraud Aggravated Identity Theft, Florida 2023 · Florida
Key Facts
- State: Florida
- Category: White Collar Crime|Organized Crime
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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