Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - This Scam Artist is in BIG Trouble // The Eli Weinstein Fraud Scandal

Episode Date: April 2, 2026

Eliyahu "Eli" Weinstein is a New Jersey-based repeat fraudster who masterminded multiple high-stakes Ponzi schemes totaling over $250 million in losses, specifically targeting investors within the Orthodox Jewish community. Originally sentenced to 24 years in federal prison for a $200 million real estate scheme, his sentence was commuted to time served by the president in January 2021 after serving only eight years. Almost immediately following his release, Weinstein began a new $41 million scheme.

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and he's living in New Jersey. and Ellie really wants to be rich. Problem is, he's working as a used car salesman. And he's not making anywhere near the money that he wants. So one day, in 2004, he figures out a scam to start making himself wealthy. So Ellie is part of the Orthodox Jewish community in New Jersey. And he starts going around to people where he lives, and he tells them that he knows how to make them rich.

And he wants them to give their money to him so that he can invest it in real estate for them, because he tells them he has some kind of advantage in the market or something. Of course, he doesn't, but that's what he says. And so, people start investing through him, because he's known in the community and the people there trust him. And he, like, creates these fake mortgages and fake deeds and fake checks, and he makes it all look legit.

Of course, he's not investing all this money. He's keeping a huge portion of it for himself. And he's, like, blowing it on dumb shit. Like, he's leasing luxury cars, and he buys a bunch of money. and he buys a bunch of fancy art, and he buys millions of dollars worth of jewelry. He's using a bunch of it to go to Las Vegas and gamble. But then he'll also take some of the money and he'll donate it to religious organizations and charities in the community so that people think he's an honest guy.

And this like builds his reputation, which in turn attracts new investors. And so he continues to pull this scam. And he does it over and over and over again. and six years pass. And he's still going. He's taken money from the people in the community and he's pretending to invest it, which is essentially a big Ponzi scheme.

But by now, he's pulled in over $200 million. Damn. But then, around 2010, things start to get complicated for him. Because he ultimately runs out of new investors to take money from. And he can't pay back some of the old investors. And some of those old investors get super pissed. They want Ellie to give them their money back.

And so then some of those old investors start to think that this is a scam, and they go and they report Ellie to the FBI. And the FBI starts investigating, and they see that he's running a big Ponzi scheme. And so, bam, the feds arrest him. Here is a picture of him getting arrested. And two years go by. And Ellie is no longer in jail.

he's actually out on bond waiting for his trial. And while he's waiting on that trial, he comes up with a brand new way to con some more money. See, during this time, Facebook is really popular and the company is about to IPO and go public. So Ellie recruits some of his friends to approach some new investors with a proposal. And they claim that they have a way to buy Facebook shares before it goes public and this is all going to make them so rich. And I guess the investors are like, sounds legit. And, and And they start sending millions of dollars to a bank account that Ellie controls. And he and his goons also start telling people that they're investing in some apartment complex in Miami,

and that's a whole other scam. But they grift people into investing in that, too, until they've pulled in about $8 million total. And of course, Ellie doesn't use this money to buy shares of Facebook or Miami apartments. No, no, he uses it to pay his kids' religious school tuition. he gets his home out of foreclosure. He uses a huge portion of it to pay his lawyers who are representing him in his trial for his first $200 million Ponzi scheme. But anyway, pretty quickly, one of his investors gets suspicious and they report him to the feds.

And so, bam, he gets arrested again. And in 2015, he finally goes to trial for these crimes and he gets sentenced to 24 years in prison. But, Ellie, he's not going to let me. let a little thing like prison stop him. Because about eight years go by, and it's now 2021, and the dude is still in prison. And I'm not entirely sure if he has personal connections or if he somehow pays someone off in the presidential administration, but Donald Trump, who is finishing up his first term as president, decides to grant Ellie Clemency, which reduces his sentence to time served. And so, Ellie is immediately released.

from prison. So now he's a free man and he gets to do whatever he wants with his life. And a few months go by. And I guess he just can't help himself and he's like, oh, you know, I should probably go do some more scamming. And so he gets to work on a completely new con. And he starts a new investment business with some of his other shady associates and they start looking for new investors. Now, of course, Ellie can't be the face of this new company because he's been busted for financial crimes twice. So he has to use a fake name and run the whole operation, mostly behind the scenes. Now, it's 2021 during this time. So the pandemic is still going on. And this gives Ellie an idea. Why not tell investors that his company is going to use their money to invest in PPE masks and

baby formula and things that are popular right now because of COVID? And then later they go on to expand and tell investors that they're investing in first aid kits for Ukraine because then the Russia-Ukraine war becomes a big news topic. So you can see where this is going. And I guess this works. I mean, people think that there's a lot of money in PPE masks and baby formula and stuff because these are things people need. And so they start investing a whole lot of money into Ellie's business. And pretty quickly, he's controlling $44 million of investors' funds. But of course, he doesn't use this money to invest in PPE masks or baby formula or first aid kits for Ukraine. This guy spends it on more dumb shit for himself. He buys himself watches and jewelry and he buys

a penthouse apartment in Florida and he spends literally millions of dollars gambling at casinos. And another year goes by. And so it's now 2022. And during this time, Ellie starts working with an outside investment firm to bring new investors in. And to be clear, the people working at that firm don't know that Ellie is running a Ponzi scheme. Now, at some point, investors who came into all this through this firm, they're hitting the firm up wanting to cash in on some of their investments. But there's not enough money to pay them all back. Because what Ellie is doing is a big Ponzi scheme, and this always happens in Ponzi schemes,

they always end up falling apart. And one guy who owns the investment firm, he starts thinking, why isn't there enough money to pay all these people back? And he suddenly gets suspicious that something shady is going on. So he and his business partner, they set up some meetings with Ellie, and in those meetings, he secretly records him. And Ellie straight up admits that, yeah, he's been using a fake name and that the investors are getting screwed over

because everything he's been doing is just a scam. And eventually, the owner of the investment firm and his business partner, they take all of this information to the FBI. And they say that they want to confess to being involved in a Ponzi scheme, and they give them all the recordings they made. And so, bam, Ellie is arrested for a third time. And I don't have a mugshot, but here's a picture of him in real life. And so ultimately, he goes to trial again, and he's convicted again,

and he gets sentenced to 37 years in prison. And who knows, maybe he'll get lucky and the president will commute his sentence again.