By Jonathan Stempel
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A Brooklyn man who ran a business named for a fake company from the TV show “Seinfeld” to swindle $1.34 million from real estate and cryptocurrency investors, leaving some victims with nothing, has pleaded guilty to wire fraud, U.S. prosecutors said on Friday.
Thomas John Sfraga allegedly told victims from 2019 to 2022 that he could generate healthy double-digit returns by renovating and reselling homes, paying start-up costs on a big construction contract and funding a cryptocurrency “virtual wallet.”
Prosecutors said Sfraga, 55, also known as T.J. Stone, instead used victims’ money for personal expenses and to repay earlier victims, and told multiple victims who asked why their money was delayed that his father was terminally ill.
According to court papers, Sfraga told victims he led multiple businesses including Vandelay Contracting Corp.
That name resembles Vandelay Industries, where in a 1992 “Seinfeld” episode George Costanza, played by Jason Alexander, falsely claimed that he interviewed for a job as a latex salesman.
Vandelay Contracting registered to do business in New York in 2011.
“For years, Sfraga brazenly lied to friends, neighbors and investors to swindle over $1.3 million of their hard-earned life savings,” U.S. Attorney Breon Peace in Brooklyn said in a statement.
Samuel Jacobson, a federal public defender representing Sfraga, declined to comment.
Sfraga pleaded guilty on Thursday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Lois Bloom.
He could face 33 to 41 months in prison under recommended federal sentencing guidelines. He accepted an order requiring that he pay his 14 victims $1.34 million in restitution.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Mark Porter)
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