Recordsreleased last week by the U. S. Supreme Court reveal that when Brooklyn U. S.District Court Judge Leo Glasser sealed the record of Felix Sater’s convictionon a guilty plea to joining with crime syndicate members in cheating investorsall across the country, while Sater awaited sentencing in the Brooklyn case,the secrecy order enabled Sater to bilk more than 100 other investors in FortLauderdale’s Trump International Hotel & Tower. The $200 million Las OlasBoulevard construction project now stands incomplete, empty, and chained offalong Fort Lauderdale’s popular beachfront.
JoeAltschul, attorney for 75 of the bilked purchasers of units in the failedcondominium hotel development explained why the Brooklyn court’s secrecy orderaided in the fraud against his clients: “Each of these purchasers had a rightto know who they were dealing with. It’s bad enough that they prop up DonaldTrump as the developer, but then you find out that it’s not Trump but aconvicted felon already charged in financial shenanigans.”
Briefsin the Supreme Court case contend that the Sater case is only one of many inthe Eastern District of New York in which prosecutors get judges to sealconviction records of mobsters – records which should be public to protectother innocent investors considering putting money into deals with felons whohave already pleaded guilty to financial fraud, but whose convictions the courtkeeps secret on the supposed basis of a need to protect the lives of crimefigures cooperating in government investigations into mob activities. Lawyersinvolved in this particular case are especially miffed because in passingsentence Sater’s case Judge Glasser took a pass on the traditional measure ofordering Sater to make restitution to the folks he duped while secretlyconvicted on his guilty plea and awaiting sentencing. There’s nothing aboutthat aspect of the case that could have contributed to avoiding a mob hit onSater.
Whenprosecutors and the courts contribute to the ongoing frauds of criminalsagainst the investing public, and then shirk responsibility for making wholethe folks they are supposed to protect from mob activities, it makes honestpeople in the construction business wonder whose side these public officialsare on.
Saterowns a $4.8 million condo on Fisher Island, and allegedly paid the mob $1.5million to be let in on the Fort Lauderdale Trump project. One of the lawyersinvolved in the Supreme Court case which resulted in release of the sealedrecord of Sater’s conviction is former federal judge Paul Cassell, who blamesJudge Glasser for not immediately making Sater’s guilty plea conviction public.“The court illegally gave away millions to a criminal,” Cassell says. Miamifirst Amendment lawyer Tom Julin agrees. “It’s the worst thing a court can do.In a day and age when economic crimes can affect massive amounts of people,there’s a real danger in super sealing these kinds of judicial proceedings.”
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