U.S. v. Schlesinger, CR.02-485(ADS)(ARL).

Citation438 F.Supp.2d 76
Decision Date17 July 2006
Docket NumberNo. CR.02-485(ADS)(ARL).,CR.02-485(ADS)(ARL).
PartiesUNITED STATES of America, v. Nat SCHLESINGER, also known as "Naftule Schlesinger" and "Zvi Pollack," Herman Niederman, and Goodmark Industries, Inc., Defendants.
CourtUnited States District Courts. 2nd Circuit. United States District Court (Eastern District of New York)

Roslynn R. Mauskopf, United States Attorney, by Lawrence Philip Ferazani, Cynthia M. Monaco Central Islip, NY, Richard Lunger, Assistant U.S. Attorneys, for United States of America.

Lipsitz, Green, Fahringer, Roll, Salisbury & Cambria, LLP, New York, NY (Herald Price Fahringer, of Counsel), Jeremy L Gutman, New York, NY, for the defendants Nat Schlesinger and Goodmark Industries, Inc. Michael L. Soshnick, Esq., Adrian L. Diluzio, Esq., Mineola, NY, for the defendant Nat Schlesinger.

MEMORANDUM OF DECISION AND ORDER

SPATT, District Judge.

In this motion pursuant to Rule 33 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure ("Fed. R.Crim.P.") the defendant Nat Schlesinger ("the defendant") seeks a new trial on his conviction following a trial by a jury, of thirty various counts of arson, conspiracy, insurance fraud, creditor fraud, and money laundering, on the basis of newly discovered evidence. The motion calls into question the veracity of two witnesses, primarily with the use of a surreptitiously recorded witness recantation. In addition, the defendant also alleges that the government not only withheld information useful for impeachment, but knowingly permitted false testimony concerning such information. Although the testimony at issue, and all of the alleged newly discovered evidence, relate only to the arson counts, the defendant seeks dismissal of the entire conviction on the theories of prosecutorial misconduct and prejudicial spillover. The Court begins with a table of contents.

                CONTENTS
                I.  BACKGROUND....................................................................   81
                    A. The Indictment.............................................................   81
                    B. The Trial..................................................................   81
                       1.  The Fraudulent Scheme..................................................   81
                       2.  The Arson..............................................................   82
                            i. Testimony of the Firefighters......................................   82
                           ii. Testimony of Thomas J. Russo and James Pryor.......................   83
                          iii. Testimony of David Steinberg.......................................   84
                           iv. Testimony of Fire Marshal Bernard Santangelo.......................   84
                            v. Testimony of Abraham Weiser........................................   85
                           vi. Testimony of Victor Schlesinger....................................   85
                          vii. Testimony of Israel Schwimmer......................................   86
                         viii. Additional Evidence of Arson.......................................   87
                       3.  The Defense............................................................   87
                       4.  Verdict................................................................   88
                    C. The Post Trial Motions.....................................................   88
                       1. The Rule 29 Motion for a Judgment of Acquittal..........................   88
                       2. The First Rule 33 Motion for a New Trial................................   89
                       3. The Second Rule 33 Motion for a New Trial...............................   89
                           i.  The Alleged Newly Discovered Evidence..............................   90
                               (a) Israel Schwimmer's Recantation.................................   90
                               (b) Signed Statement of David Ganz.................................   91
                               (c) Ruling by Rabbi Gruber on behalf of the Rabbinical Court
                                     (Beis Din Tzedek)............................................   92
                               (d) Affidavits from Certain Members of Israel Schwimmer's
                                     Family.......................................................   92
                               (e) Signed Statements of Members of the Community
                                     Regarding Victor Schlesinger's Testimony.....................   93
                               (f) Affidavit of Private Investigator Warren Flagg.................   94
                               (g) Additional Evidence of the Minnesota Investigation.............   94
                          ii.  The Government's Response..........................................   94
                    D.  Post Trial Evidentiary Hearing............................................   95
                        1. Testimony of Israel Schwimmer..........................................   96
                        2. Testimony of Abraham Lichtenstein......................................   98
                        3. Testimony of Susan Necheles, Esq.......................................   98
                
                        4. Testimony of Doran Zanani, Esq.........................................   99
                        5. Testimony of Government Agents in the Minnesota Investigation..........   99
                II. DISCUSSION....................................................................  100
                    A. The Legal Standard in a Motion for a New Trial.............................  100
                    B. As to Israel Schwimmer's Recantation.......................................  101
                       1. The Scope and Materiality of the False Testimony........................  101
                       2. The Repudiation of the Recantation......................................  102
                       3. As to the Alleged Falsity of the Schwimmer Trial Testimony..............  103
                    C. As to the Alleged Perjury of Trial Witnesses...............................  106
                    D. As to the Government's Alleged Failure to Disclosure Impeachment
                         Evidence.................................................................  110
                III. CONCLUSION...................................................................  111
                
I. BACKGROUND
A. The Indictment

On October 1, 2003, a grand jury entered a 34 count Superseding Indictment ("Indictment") against defendants Nat Schlesinger, Herman Niederman, and Goodmark Industries, Inc., charging arson, conspiracy, insurance fraud, creditor fraud, and money laundering, arising out of, among other acts, a series of five fires dating back to 1987 that occurred at a clothing factory in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. The Indictment alleged that Nat Schlesinger owned and maintained the factory with his brother, Jack Schlesinger, in a building that had various addresses due to the fact that the building occupied an entire city block and had multiple entrances.

The Indictment alleged that Nat Schlesinger and his brother masked their ownership of the numerous clothing manufacturing companies that occupied this location from the time they purchased the building in the early 1980's in order to conceal certain fraudulent schemes. One scheme involved defrauding insurance companies by submitting fraudulent claims for losses resulting from a series of five separate fires that occurred at the Premises from 1987 to 1999. The second scheme involved using various companies as vehicles to defraud creditors.

The Indictment also charged Nat Schlesinger with one count of arson and one count of use of fire to commit a felony in connection with the fire that occurred at the factory on December 31, 1998. The indictment charged that Nat Schlesinger deliberately caused a fire in the factory on the night of December 31, 1998 for the purpose of submitting a false and inflated insurance claim totaling approximately $4,590,000.

B. The Trial

On April 11, 2005, a jury trial was commenced on the charges in the indictment.

1. The Fraudulent Schemes

At the trial the government offered overwhelming evidence of the two fraudulent schemes alleged in the indictment. In connection with the scheme to fraudulently inflate insurance claims on the five fires that occurred at the factory, through witnesses and numerous documents, the government showed that the defendant, through his various clothing businesses, unlawfully obtained money in the sum of $4,510,629.41 from insurance companies by bribing employees and adjusters, and submitting false documentation in support of fraudulent insurance claims. This amount was received by the defendant's businesses from insurance companies in payment of fraudulently inflated claims for the fires that occurred at the clothing factory. In addition, the government also established that this same sum of 54,510,629.41 in fraudulent insurance payments was laundered when it was deposited into and transferred through the various business accounts of the defendant and his businesses.

The government also submitted ample evidence proving the second complex creditor fraud scheme. This scheme involved the use of the defendant's companies Pous Apparel, Inc., Private Brands, Inc., and Goodmark Industries, Inc., as vehicles to defraud various creditors by masking the true ownership of the companies. This was accomplished by the use of nominees and shell corporations, and ultimately succeeded in carrying out what was, in effect, two self organized bankruptcies. Specifically, one of the fraudulent acts that the government proved at the trial was that Nat Schlesinger foreclosed on Goodmark Industries' machinery and equipment by using a company he controlled known as Western Industries, Inc., leaving the creditors of Goodmark without any recourse against Goodmark's assets. The evidence also showed that Nat Schlesinger masked his ownership of Western Industries through a series of nominees and transactions with shell corporations. After foreclosing on the Goodmark assets, Western Industries then sold the equipment at auction for the sum of $72,525.

2. The Arson

In comparison to the overwhelming direct evidence offered with regard to the two fraudulent schemes, the government's case on the arson counts consisted of circumstantial evidence. The government called several witnesses to testify about the...

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8 cases
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    • U.S. District Court — Eastern District of New York
    • 13 juin 2013
    ...to the defendant supported giving his hearsay allegations about a government witness “little weight”); United States v. Schlesinger, 438 F.Supp.2d 76, 103 (E.D.N.Y.2006) (“[T]he formality of a court, the presence of the litigants, and the gaze of a judge induce witnesses to hew more closely......
  • United States v. Mangano
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    • U.S. District Court — Eastern District of New York
    • 6 janvier 2022
    ...... trial-establishing the falsity of the trial. testimony”); United States v. Schlesinger,. . 114 . . 438 F.Supp.2d 76, 106 (E.D.N.Y. 2006) (denying motion for a. new trial where the court held an evidentiary ... Agrawal, 726 F.3d 235, 257 (2d Cir. 2013) (finding that. evidence at trial “allow[s] us confidently to conclude. that there is no reasonable probability that the failure to. submit the question to the jury affected the ......
  • Schlesinger v. United States
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    • 6 février 2012
    ...711 (E.D.N.Y.2005), and his third motion for a new trial pursuant to Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 33 (“Rule 33”), United States v. Schlesinger ( “Schlesinger II” ), 438 F.Supp.2d 76 (E.D.N.Y.2006). On October 5, 2009, Schlesinger brought the instant petition for a writ of habeas corpu......
  • Schlesinger v. United States
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — Eastern District of New York
    • 6 février 2012
    ...711 (E.D.N.Y. 2005), and his third motion for a new trial pursuant to Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 33 ("Rule 33"), United States v. Schlesinger ("Schlesinger II"), 438 F. Supp. 2d 76 (E.D.N.Y. 2006). On October 5, 2009, Schlesinger brought the instant petition for a writ of habeas cor......
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6 books & journal articles
  • Perjury
    • United States
    • American Criminal Law Review No. 60-3, July 2023
    • 1 juillet 2023
    ...(noting the lower standard of proof needed for the prosecution to prove perjury under § 1623(c)). 93. United States v. Schlesinger, 438 F. Supp. 2d 76, 106 (E.D.N.Y. 2006). 94. See, e.g. , Johnson v. United States, 520 U.S. 461, 465 (1997); United States v. Fernandez-Barron, 950 F.3d 655, 6......
  • Perjury
    • United States
    • American Criminal Law Review No. 59-3, July 2022
    • 1 juillet 2022
    ...(noting the lower standard of proof needed for the prosecution to prove perjury under § 1623(c)). 94. United States v. Schlesinger, 438 F. Supp. 2d 76, 106 (E.D.N.Y. 2006). 95. See, e.g. , Johnson v. United States, 520 U.S. 461, 465 (1997) (“[T]here is no doubt that materiality is an elemen......
  • Perjury.
    • United States
    • American Criminal Law Review Vol. 45 No. 2, March 2008
    • 22 mars 2008
    ...(finding [section] 1623(c) allows jury to infer falsity of declaration from its inconsistency with another). (81.) U.S. v. Schlesinger, 438 F. Supp. 2d 76 (E.D.N.Y. 2006) (holding that perjury was not established and new trial was not warranted by newly discovered evidence of purported perj......
  • Perjury.
    • United States
    • American Criminal Law Review Vol. 44 No. 2, March 2007
    • 22 mars 2007
    ...(finding [section] 1623(c) allows jury to infer falsity of declaration from its inconsistency with another). (80.) U.S. v. Schlesinger, 438 F.Supp.2d 76 (E.D.N.Y. 2006) (holding that perjury was not established and new trial was not warranted by newly discovered evidence of purported perjur......
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