‘Billionaire rabbi’ whose ‘fantastical’ lies included a fake $290 million bid for Lord & Taylor and work for the CIA is sentenced

Russell Dwayne Lewis, 57, informed “more and more fantastical and outrageous lies” to defraud pals and workers, culminating in a farcical try to purchase the storied retailer with nonexistent belongings, based on prosecutors. Lewis, who glided by “Clifford Ari Getz,” informed victims of his fraud that he operated a secretive household funding agency, Neviim Fairness, out of places of work in Beverly Hills, California.

Lewis, a high-school graduate from Texas, claimed he had grown up in London, and that he had earned a Ph.D. in theoretical arithmetic and statistics, and grasp’s levels in neurophysics, genetics and quantum physics. A convert to Judaism, Lewis claimed falsely that he was a rabbi.

“I do know that you understand the distinction between proper and fallacious,” US District Choose Laura Taylor Swain stated Monday after asserting the sentence in New York. “Mendacity, stealing, dishonest are fallacious, and also you’re paying a heavy value for that.”

The sentence matched the request by prosecutors. A lawyer for Lewis had requested for lower than the 7 1/4 years really helpful by federal sentencing pointers. Lewis has agreed to forfeit the $3.8 million he stole together with some art work that was present in his Beverly Hills dwelling.

Pretend Id, CIA

Prosecutors claimed Lewis stole the identification of a person named Clifford Getz, used the Social Safety variety of a 13-year-old boy in Ohio and cast a passport. He boasted that he was value $10 billion, $18 billion and even $30 billion, relying on whom he was speaking to.

Lewis claimed falsely to have labored for the Central Intelligence Company, the US Secret Service and the Los Angeles Police Division, prosecutors stated. He additionally claimed he used his information of astrology to assist decide the jury for the 1995 O.J. Simpson double-murder trial, based on the federal government. The defrauded widow initially got here to him for his claimed astrological experience.

Lewis didn’t plead responsible to creating his allegedly phony chapter court docket bid to accumulate Lord and Taylor, the practically 200-year-old retailer that folded in 2020, although prosecutors used it of their sentencing papers. The Lord & Taylor deal was by no means closed and Lewis made no cash from it. Underneath his plea settlement with prosecutors, the cost associated to the bogus bid was dropped.

When Lewis made the bid, it was properly above what the Lord & Taylor staff anticipated. Lord & Taylor, its attorneys, bankers and different advisers spent a lot of August 2020 in calls with Lewis and his individuals, doing due diligence and attempting to determine if the deal was workable. Lord & Taylor’s representatives wasted 1000’s of {dollars} and weeks of time evaluating the proposed deal, prosecutors stated.

Prosecutors stated Lewis despatched a cast letter from a international financial institution claiming that it held a whole bunch of hundreds of thousands of euros belonging to him. 

Ultimately, an funding agency, Saadia Group, agreed to pay simply $12 million for Lord & Taylor’s mental property and e-commerce belongings.