| Stock Fraudster From
Azerbaijan Who Teaches Tennis Gets 28 Months
in SDNY
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC
- Guardian
UK - Honduras
- ESPN
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
Oct 17 – Vladimir Ziskind came
at age 6 from Azerbaijan in
the then-USSR to Florida then
Brooklyn. He became a
professional tennis player but
could not stay in the top 100.
He engaged in securities
fraud.
On October 16
U.S. District Court for the
Southern District of New York
Judge Vernon S. Broderick held
his sentencing. Inner City
Press live tweeted some of it,
here:
The AUSA
says there is no basis for
mercy, he came from a stable
home, went to NYU, was a
professional tennis player.
The US wants 63
to 78 months and payment of $2
million.
Ziskind's
lawyer says he was a victim of
religious persecution. And
that his wife has mental
health issues and cannot work.
Hence... securities
fraud.
There was more:
his wife as ovarian cancer. A
victim's letter was read,
about how Ziskind destroyed
his golden years.
More: In fact,
there was no “Mike Palmer,”
and the salesman was actually
ZISKIND or co-defendant Kevin
Weinzoff, who were taking
turns using the fake
alias. The purported
time-sensitive investment
opportunity was also
fabricated by the defendants,
as the companies in which they
solicited investments were
actually companies under their
control. In one
intercepted phone call
conversation, ZISKIND
described to co-defendant
Keith Orlean, the chief
executive officer of the
company, his strategy for a
successful investor sales
pitch as: “You ram it down
their fucking throat.”
In another intercepted call
between ZISKIND and Orlean,
upon learning that a
particular victim investor
died, ZISKIND remarked: “I
knew I should have pulled the
last $10,000 out of
him.”
The most
recent version of the
defendants’ phony sales pitch
included false representations
about an impending initial
public offering, or “IPO,” for
their company, Digital
Donations Technologies,
Inc. For example, in
April 2018, ZISKIND assured a
victim investor that “our
company is doing great,” that
the company had an offer for
an IPO valued at approximately
$300 million, and that Orlean
was considering a private sale
of the company for more than
$1.5 billion. In truth,
however, the defendants knew
that the company had little or
no actual commercial value and
that no such IPO or sale was
taking place.
Judge Broderick
sentenced Ziskind, a/k/a Mike
Palmer, for security fraud to
28 months in prison then 3
years of supervised released.
Voluntary surrender, Otisville
recommended.
The case is US v.
Ziskind, 18-cr-375 (Broderick)
***
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