Multiple Haredi leaders promised former President Donald Trump that two-time convicted fraudster Eliyahu Weinstein was a changed man, leading to the latter’s pardon in 2021.

He was arrested today on charges of leading an alleged $38 million Ponzi scheme, two and a half years after he walked out of prison.

“He has displayed deep remorse and broken-heartedly vows never to repeat his past mistakes,” wrote Rabbi Nochum Dov Brayer of the Boyaner Hasidic sect in his 2021 letter to Trump requesting a pardon for Weinstein. Other Haredi leaders who petitioned for Weinstein’s release included Moshe Margaretten of the Tzedek Association, who is from the Skver Hasidic sect, and leading Haredi rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, who passed away in 2022. Others who petitioned for his release range from lawyer Alan Dershowitz to multiple current and former members of Congress.

In an email to Shtetl, Dershowitz said of Weinstein, "If he's found guilty again, he will receive no mercy." Dershowitz went on to describe his work for Weinstein's pardon: "I had little or no contact with him personally," Dershowitz wrote, adding, "I provided legal advice to a Jewish organization that advocated lower sentences for those who received long sentences like his."

In the latest allegations against Weinstein, the Securities and Exchange Commission charges that he and five of his business associates, including Lakewood residents Aryeh L. Bromberg and Joel L. Wittels, defrauded investors after seeking their investment in a healthcare product distributor through an investment firm named Optimus.

The SEC alleges that Weinstein led Optimus, but used the alias “Mike Konig” to obscure his identity, along with his criminal past, from investors. When some purported Optimus deals turned out to be unprofitable, prosecutors claim, the alleged co-conspirators began using funds from new investors to pay earlier investors, claiming the funds were investment returns.

Weinstein was eight years into a 24-year prison sentence for fraud in 2021 when Trump commuted his sentence. In 2013, Weinstein pleaded guilty to multiple fraud-related charges in a real estate Ponzi scheme that caused $200 million in losses, and was sentenced to 22 years in prison. While he was on pretrial release in 2014, he pleaded guilty to fraud, conspiracy, and money laundering charges, in a $6.7 million securities fraud; he was sentenced to an additional two years.

This story was updated to include a statement from Alan Dershowitz.