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This is a CNBC original.

In this episode of American Greed, he's a consultant to con men.

The greed, the greed, American greed. You want to talk about American greed?

American greed was without boundary. The brains behind one of the largest scams

in history.

Before it's over, he'll lead federal agents on an international chase.

changing locations and identities.

Dealmaker Sholem Weiss doesn't hide in the shadows.

The guy is such a flamboyant character. He's big and he's bold and he's brazen

and he's loud.

He was attracted to lights, women, music, gambling.

Are these the fatal attractions that will do him in?

In 1999, Sholem Weiss goes on trial in Orlando, Florida, for masterminding one

of the largest insurance frauds in U .S. history.

The charges?

Weiss and his accomplices have stolen a staggering $450 million from National

Heritage Life Insurance Bank accounts.

And people who invested in annuities and life insurance policies see their life

savings disappear.

The take went right into the pockets of those who were perpetrating this game.

The trial lasts for more than nine months.

When it comes time for the case to go to the jury, Weiss doesn't stick around

for the verdict.

His space next to his attorney was empty.

That is not the first time I've had a client take what we used to refer to in

the 80s as a Colombian appeal.

Slang for fleeing the country rather than facing the music.

He's gone, leaving the country without a trace.

A warrant is issued for his arrest.

The FBI puts him on their most wanted list.

And an international manhunt begins.

But Sholem Weiss is no ordinary fugitive.

We're going to have a new saga.

Going to match wits with the smartest guy in the world.

Weiss's story begins in Brooklyn's Borough Park neighborhood in a close

Orthodox Jewish community.

By all indications, his childhood is fairly normal.

He's one of nine children.

We assume that people who grow up in that community have good moral

His father runs a simple fruit stand.

They're making ends meet, but it's not an easy life.

The entire Weiss family lives in a two -bedroom apartment.

Weiss strikes out on his own when he turns 18.

He never finished high school.

He started his own plumbing business, and that's how he started to make money.

That plumbing business, Windsor Plumbing and Heating Supply, is Weiss's way out.

In 1974, Windsor is a small -time operation.

He eventually builds it into a multimillion -dollar business.

By the mid-'80s, the man who grew up in a Brooklyn tenement has a mansion in

Muncie, New York.

The story could have ended there, and Weiss could have lived out the American

dream.

But something happens on the way to success.

Sholem Weiss gets greedy.

It starts with what has been a successful plumbing company suddenly

bankruptcy. Then his warehouse burns down.

He defrauded Lloyd's of London through a mysterious fire in Brooklyn where

10 or 20 non -existent Whirlpool spa baths went up in flames.

It doesn't look like Sholem Weiss is particularly good at the art of the

He winds up in prison for the phony insurance claim.

Five months into an eight -month sentence, he proves to be a good

good behavior come perks.

He's moved from the prison to a halfway house in Manhattan to serve out the rest

of his time.

One day he puts in a request.

He asked the judge for a furlough.

for a Jewish holiday in which he wanted to spend with his wife and children.

That's not where he stays.

Instead, he takes a chartered jet to Donald Trump's casino in Atlantic City.

Mr. Weiss ended up in Atlantic City with stories of prostitutes,

drugs, and certainly alcohol.

That is the fatal flaw of this man.

He and a female companion go through more than $70 ,000 before he returns to

halfway house.

The authorities found out about it, and he was taken out of the halfway house.

Not a guy who lacks for a daring move now and then.

But he hasn't learned from his mistakes.

He's already planning his next move.

And when he gets back his black suit and hat and walks out of the prison gate,

he knows what he's going to do.

His arrogance and cunning have made him into a man capable of orchestrating the

largest insurance scam in U .S. history.

It's 1993, and Sholem Weiss has begun a new career as a workout expert, a

consultant to others in financial difficulties.

In reality, he does have a specialty to sell, how to cheat the system and turn

financial woes into profit. And part of his brilliance is that he doesn't leave

a paper trail.

He was just an amazing, extraordinary character and kept almost everything in

his head.

No diaries, no day timers, no aids. He's just the smartest guy

in the world. Whatever the problem is, I'll solve it.

Weiss is called to Park Avenue to meet with a bankruptcy client and high

-powered New York lawyers Michael Blutrick and Richard Herman.

The bankruptcy attorney comes in the room, makes a presentation, gives an

analysis of the case.

Sounded good.

And all of a sudden, Mr. Weiss stands up and says, I don't agree with that.

You're wrong.

Blutrick is impressed by Weiss's chutzpah. He sees a kindred spirit,

with the talent and guts to use unconventional methods.

Blutrick has another case that can use Weiss's creative input.

The lawyer represents a life insurance company in Orlando, Florida called

National Heritage.

Some of their investments are quite unusual for a life insurance company.

I believe National Heritage even invested in a strip club in New York

Blutrick and the owners have been stealing money from the company, and

thefts have caused a $35 million accounting gap.

Blutrick's law partner explains what he learned later about how they were able

to skim money off with falsified appraisals.

There'd be a piece of property that, say, was worth,

$500 ,000, and they would get an appraisal saying it's worth $3 million.

So the insurance company would send over $3 million.

They would buy the property for $500 ,000, and the rest of the money they

whack up between themselves.

Insurance regulators are starting to ask questions about the $35 million hole in

the books, and Blutrick thinks Weiss can help cover it. They knew.

that they needed a fixer, because they were minor league con men, and they

needed a con man doctor.

They knew Shalom Weiss could be their fixer. They asked, Shalom, you do

workouts, you do things, what can we do? We have this $35 million hole in our

accounting. What can we do here? Do you have any ideas for us?

And Shalom did.

Next on American Greed, see how bankruptcy expert Sholem Weiss' ideas

half -billion -dollar car.

In Orlando, an insurance company, National Heritage Life, is being looted

owners.

Through a series of sham companies and bogus transactions, the owners and their

lawyer are funneling millions of dollars of company money into their own

pockets. The greed, the greed, American greed. You want to talk about American

greed? The American greed was without boundary.

They had this company and they annihilated it without regard to anybody

anyone. But it's hard to conceal graft on this scale.

And insurance regulators are close to discovering that $35 million shortfall

the company's accounts.

The books and records just weren't adding up.

The con men are in over their heads.

So they reach out to a creative financial consultant with just the

need. Show them wise.

They believed they'd found someone with a more sophisticated and deeper

knowledge of how to handle the growing problem of the $35 million

hole. Jolum Wise has learned how to work the system, and since then he has

counseled others in financial distress.

His reputation for shady deal -making is legendary.

He became a master at bankruptcy fraud.

in New York. And Michael Blutrick saw him operate, and he said, wow, this

unbelievable.

And so is his double -sided personal life.

He wore a black suit every day. He wore a yarmulke every day. He professed to be

a very conservative, Hasidic Jew.

Yet he doesn't always act like one.

Weiss had a very fast lifestyle.

He was known to be a lover of gambling.

He liked to drink, and he liked women, and he liked gambling.

He and his wife were technically estranged, even though they lived in the

house and they had children together.

Weiss's personal life is not national heritage's concern.

The con men need a heavyweight.

They needed to go to Muhammad Ali, and that's where Sholem Weiss came into the

picture. Weiss's big idea will sound familiar.

It's sort of an early 90s version of the mortgage fraud that brought about the

recent financial meltdown.

In August 1993, Weiss buys mortgages that are in default for 60 % of their

value. He pays $60 million for 100 million worth of mortgages.

National Heritage pays him full face value of 100 million.

With the $40 million profit, He kicks back the $35 million that the con men

to cover their accounting hole and is left with a nice $5 million payday to

share with his co -conspirators.

Everybody got a cut. Everyone grabbed what they could, took what they thought

they could get away with. Giving Shalom Weiss $100 million is like, you know,

giving a baby ice cream.

There's no way he's not going to have some fun with that.

With the $35 million hole covered for now, the schemers feel confident

Heritage can survive an insurance commission review and live to be built

day. Weiss is so confident that he acquires stock in National Heritage and

now a permanent part of the con team.

He starts to handle more of the skimming operations.

There are many others who believe, certainly, that Shalom Weiss kind of

over. Ultimately, Mr. Weiss ended up with the most money.

Weiss will soon find out if his financial voodoo will hold up to

scrutiny when the company comes up for a regular review in the spring of 1994.

We really had to chase down the assets because you looked at the balance sheet

and something said this and it wasn't quite adding up.

The examiners sharpen their pencils and get down to work.

When we first started...

suspecting things weren't quite right with National Heritage.

We opened the toolbox.

We went in to look a little deeper, find out what was really going on.

There were on -site visits.

There were additional regulatory filings that were required.

Ultimately, an exam was done, and my team advised me that the company had

solvency issues.

When they uncover investments the Kahn team put on the books at more than their

actual worth, they realize the company has almost no real value.

Alarmed by the bald -faced criminal activity, the insurance commission tips

the FBI and federal prosecutors.

By the end, it was a shell.

Every investment was pretty much a hollow Fabergé egg.

He kept taking it apart, and there was nothing left, nothing left, nothing

We thought we were looking at a few million dollars in fraud, but after we

talked to the auditors, I realized it was more like a half a billion dollars

fraud.

Investigators turned their focus to the mortgages Weiss bought.

They said, well, let's test these. We're going to take a random selection of

these mortgage assets, and we're going to get new appraisals. We're going to

look at them. We're going to check the value. And we seized hundreds and

hundreds and hundreds of mortgages and brought them here in U -Haula trucks so

that the Delaware regulators could have at least access to their assets.

The mortgages are nearly worthless.

National Heritage is less than a functioning company.

It's a den of thieves.

When we were able to begin to understand the true nature of this

enterprise, we went in and put the company into receivership.

Regulators take National Heritage over.

Nearly half a billion dollars is missing, and someone is going to have to

for it.

It's only a matter of time before the investigation leads directly to Weiss

Blutrick. But the sky is falling in more ways than one.

Weiss and Blutrick get a tip that they've been caught on tape in

office.

We pulled down a tile on the corner of the ceiling in Michael's office, and a

camera dropped out of the ceiling.

The video camera.

So I don't know who looked whiter at that time, Blutrick, Pfeffer.

or Mr. Weiss, but everyone just couldn't believe this was going on.

It turns out that this surveillance is tied to yet another Blutrick scheme.

There had been a murder at the strip club Scores that Blutrick co -owns, a

murder with ties to the Gambino crime family.

Federal prosecutors are trying to find out what he knows about a mafia

retaliation hit.

Under pressure, Blutrick cracks.

As disturbing as the surveillance tape is, It strangely turned into a golden

parachute for Blutrick. He wasn't involved in the murder, but he is

with the Gambinos and their shady deals.

He's willing to spill what he knows to the feds to save himself.

Almost immediately upon discovery of the taps, they went in and cut a deal in

New York where they pled guilty to various felony crimes in order to not

serve. A 25 -plus year prison sentence, they agreed to work undercover.

Ultimately, Michael Blutrick also agrees to turn on his National Heritage pals

and tell the feds everything.

The National Heritage case turns out to be the largest life insurance company

fraud in American history.

Not every single case...

has the mystery and intrigue and ties to the mafia and ties to,

you know, millions of dollars like this one does.

There was bank fraud, insurance fraud, wire fraud, mail fraud, securities

mortgage fraud.

This was probably one of the most enormous cases I had ever undertaken.

Next on American Greed, the negotiator Sholem Wise takes the witness stand to

prove he's innocent.

Will it backfire?

In 1999, the largest life insurance scam in American history makes front -page

news.

National Heritage was built out of nearly $450 million.

The person who took home the biggest chunk was shady dealmaker Sholem White.

This was different than simple fraud.

The people here got the insurance company for the purpose of looting it.

Most of the scammers plead guilty and turn federal witness.

Among those who flip is New York lawyer Michael Blutrick.

He arranged the purchase of the company, helped loot it, and then brought in

Sholem Weiss to try to cover it up.

When faced with charges, Weiss decides to take his chances at trial.

He knows that the government is betting that he'll plead guilty, too.

They thought they weren't going to try this case because everyone in the

courthouse felt that it was too complicated for a jury to handle, to

evidence, to handle the complicated, interwoven deceit.

Another defendant in the case is Blue Trick's law partner, Richard Herman.

He insists he has no knowledge of the National Heritage scam.

So when Prosecutor Judy Hunt offers him a reduced sentence for his cooperation,

he flat -out refuses.

You know, they say you can indict a ham sandwich.

In this case, they indicted a crumb of the piece of bread from a ham sandwich.

But they did it. And she figured if she indicted me, I would run down to

Orlando, go into her offices, try to cut a deal with her, because after all,

Michael Blucher was my law partner.

I had to have known what they were doing.

Herman goes on trial with Sholem Weiss and three others on February 1, 1999.

From the beginning, Weiss is the main attraction in the courtroom.

Because Sholem Weiss gave the appearance of being rich and clearly was rude.

And it came across, his rudeness certainly came across in the courtroom

from time to time.

And people described him as being brusque and abrasive, and I think that's

Jurors can't help but notice his attitude.

Sholem Weiss was in the very front.

He was upset. He was an angry, seemed to be an angry, gruff man.

The trial moves at a glacial pace.

It was, you know, just such a monstrous trial with so many transactions, so much

money to trade, and so much testimony.

A lot of the witnesses were lawyers, even added to the problem.

They told us I think it was going to be a three - to five -month trial.

Kept going on and on, and all I could, my only analogy was that this was like a

John Grisham collaboration with Hunter S. Thompson.

It was just unbelievable, you know, just kind of surreal pulling together of

events and schemes.

During the trial, the defendants are free on bond.

After the day in court is over, Sholem Weiss relaxes in a favored way.

Reporter Susan Clary says he frequents a local strip club called Rachel's. He

had a girlfriend that he met at Rachel's, and she came to court every

you know, probably half his age.

Susan Clary covers the trial for the Orlando Sentinel newspaper, and she

to Wise on a daily basis.

He was very moody.

Some days he would be very sweet, and some days he would be very angry.

I would write an article that maybe wasn't as pleasing to him as he had

and the next day my car would be keyed, or I would write something that he

disliked, and I'd come to the courthouse, and he'd meet me on the

courthouse and say, why did you write all these things about me?

Back in the courtroom, attorney Joel Hirschhorn nears the end of his defense.

when Weiss adds a surprising twist.

He wants to testify.

As a criminal defense lawyer, I've had clients get acquitted who didn't take

stand and get convicted who did. The one rule is that if you get up and testify

and if the jury doesn't like you, it makes it very difficult to get

Would I have preferred that he didn't? There were some things that only he

explain.

Weiss presents his side of the case.

He insists he's an innocent.

caught in Michael Blutrick's web of deceit. He seems to think that he can

convince the jury by the force of his personality.

He obviously had some confidence or he wouldn't have gotten on the stand in the

first place.

Ultimately, I think his decision to testify hurt him more than helped him.

He's a disaster as a witness. He's big and he's bold and he's brazen and he's

loud.

Judy Hunt just did an excellent job cross -examining him.

He didn't even know it, and he was being torn to shreds.

In early October, both sides rest their cases, and the judge gives the jurors a

week -long break before starting deliberations.

The defendants are allowed to return home. For Weiss, that's his palatial

in New York.

He had a week up there in Muncie. People were worried.

about whether he would flee or not, whether the bond would hold him. I think

had to be on electronic monitoring, but his house was so big they couldn't do

electronic monitoring.

The signal from the monitor's base station won't reach his entire house.

reluctantly, the authorities allow Weiss to come and go as he pleases.

There are lots of courthouse workers, and not that they bet on the cases for

money, but so the bets were kind of...

Do you think Weiss will show up for the verdict?

And it was pretty split.

Do you think they're all going to be found guilty? I think everybody was

sure they would.

One week later, as the legal teams reassembled in Orlando for jury

deliberations. Can't find Mr. Weiss. I call, I call. So I have no choice. Next

morning, show up to court. The judge did point out to me my dance card appeared

to be empty, and it was. I had no one there sitting next to me. The judge

allowed almost a half an hour.

But she didn't want to keep the jury waiting, so she questioned his lawyer,

Hirshhorn, and she said, do you know where your client is? He said no.

Do you know if he's going to appear?

And he said, I expect him to appear.

For FBI agent Joe Judge, Weiss's failure to appear is a neon blinking sign.

Weiss is on the run.

I'm sure he was planning to flee anyway because...

He put on about 60 pounds during the trial.

We're thinking it's nervous eating. No, that's his disguise for when he flees.

There is no doubt in his mind that Weiss used the week -long break to get a head

start. That's the first thing I had to do, and try to get him entered into our

national database and get border stops, airport stops put out.

In the courtroom, the trial judge moves forward.

She gives the jury instructions, and they begin deliberation.

The judge did instruct the jury every day they were not to consider the fact

that Mr. Weiss was not there.

Morning after morning, you do start to wonder, you know, whether he was sick or

what happened to him.

Two weeks later, the jurors signal that they have reached a verdict.

The defendants minus Weiss, the symbol in the courtroom.

They begin to read those counts off, and the verdict sheet was about that thick.

like a phone book, and they read those counts down for Sean and Weiss.

And each count was guilty, guilty, guilty.

Of course, I was very disappointed that he was not there to hear the verdict

read. Three other co -defendants are found guilty as well. Then comes the

verdicts for Bluetrick's law partner, Richard Herman.

After about two hours of guilty verdicts, my heart was going through my

And the jury, the judge, read off the verdict.

Not guilty, not guilty, not guilty, not guilty.

The judge basically said, Mr. Herman, you're free to leave.

Herman feels vindicated.

I'm never going to forget this, and I'm never going to forget how I was

mistreated.

Sentencing is scheduled three months later.

Weiss's fugitive status affects the other convicts. The other defendants...

all found themselves on home confinement, even though they had

day for court. But the defense attorneys just couldn't argue at that point.

The judge throws the book at the con artists for why she stacks up each of

convictions to a grand total of 845 years.

Of course, the court knew they weren't going to be in jail for that long. But

she expressed the clear intent that due to the seriousness of the crimes they

committed, it was her intent that they remain incarcerated for the rest of

lives. It is the longest sentence ever handed down for a white -collar crime.

Instead of an ending for FBI agent Joe Judge, this is a new beginning.

Well, I knew that I was going to have a tough fugitive case because, you know,

Shalom Weiss, he was going to be a masterful fugitive. But our trial was

the people got convicted, the people got sentenced, and now I was going to spend

most of my time trying to find Shalom Weiss.

The authorities do have one advantage.

Why call her?

We frequently are able to find them by tracking their own personal

ways of life.

Sholem likes gambling, drinking, and the company of working girls. If anyone's

going to stand out in the world, it could be Sholem Weiss. Up next on

Greed, can a prostitute be the key to capturing Sholem Weiss?

Con artist Sholem Weiss is on the run.

He has been convicted of taking part in the collapse of National Heritage Life

Insurance Company.

It is the largest insurance company failure due to fraud in American

Weiss and his pals stole nearly half a billion dollars.

For his part, Weiss was sentenced to a staggering 845 years, the longest

sentence ever for a white -collar crime.

But Weiss didn't stick around to take his punishment.

He's a fugitive.

When he went on the FBI's Most Wanted, a poster went up in the post offices.

It's FBI agent Joe Judge's hope that Weiss's personal appetites will lead

authorities to him.

Sheldon Weiss is known in Las Vegas as the whale because his game was

$25 ,000 a hand.

There is a good chance that the 46 -year -old Weiss, a Hasidic Jew with a taste

for the wildlife, will stand out wherever he goes.

So I put together very detailed communications about, you know, how he

how he looked, the numerous women that he would wine and dine and entertain,

his constant wheeling and dealing 24 hours a day on phones.

Alerts go out all over the world, but especially to cities that might be

attractive to wives.

These targeted locations all have a distinct combination of a Hasidic

easy access to financial markets, gambling, and last but not least,

He traveled between several different countries while he was on the land. He

kicked out of hotels.

He had big parties with women with a lot of drinking and things going on. And so

it wasn't hard to follow him. What was hard was he kept changing. He shaved.

He colored his hair.

He lost weight.

Then a lead comes in from Sao Paulo, Brazil.

A man there fits Weiss's MO.

It sounded interesting enough for...

the lifestyle leads that we were getting and that we felt it was good enough

that I was going to go down there for three weeks and work with the Brazilian

Federal Police.

George Pontes is the officer assigned to work the case with Judge.

From the very beginning, he was a person who loves to drink alcohol.

He loved to have parties, to have sex with.

more than three or four or five women at the same time. And it was a good lead

because it's not normal for a person to party with eight and

ten girls as he did. We set up shop in this area where we felt Shalom Weiss

would be. And this area was just like the Upper East Side of New York, very

posh. We talked to concierges. We talked to maitre d's. We talked to sommeliers.

We talked to croupiers.

And we are getting a nice picture. The whale is around.

For a while, they get no bites.

Even though no one recognizes the name, the investigators still feel they're on

the whale's tail.

Individuals who have engaged in fraud generally...

have become used to a certain standard of living.

And they find it very difficult after their escape to not live kind of like

lived before. They're not likely to take the Greyhound bus.

Finally, investigators catch a break at the Sheraton.

One of the employees pointed the photo and confirmed that this man

had stayed there at the hotel in the recent past.

Finally, a guy at a hotel says, you know, this could be your guy. He looks

familiar, kind of had a little disturbance with a lot of call girls in

but his name is not Charles White.

This guy's name is Charles Dick.

And we go, whoa.

The name rings a bell with Agent Judge.

Charles Dick is the name of Weiss's cousin.

And then we find out.

that this room had an Internet service connected to it to trace the New York

Stock Exchange dealings all day. We are not looking for Charles Wise anymore.

We were looking for Charles Dick.

Charles Dick's M .O. is to change hotels frequently, and unfortunately, he has

already gone from the hotel where he was I .D., along with the alias Charles

Dick. Investigators figure out another lead to follow, his Internet service.

Every day, Shalom Wise was in touch with the stock market in New York.

We are way ahead of the power curve here now.

And we quickly had to go and get a subpoena from Brazilian court to find

where that Internet service was being provided right now. We've got another

hotel.

The room is registered to a high -priced call girl named Simone de la Santos.

That was his M .O. too. He would, shall I say, interview a number of call girls

for a while. Then he would pick one.

And she would be his favorite for a while.

The authorities raid the hotel room.

We missed him by a day.

So we were a little crestfallen there, but we felt really good. We felt really

good because we know his alias. He doesn't know we know it.

They come up empty -handed, but they still have a way to track Weiss through

girlfriend. We found out that Simone was the key of the case and she probably

would take us to get him.

Simone was constantly with Charlotte Weiss. We requested for the Brazilian

federal judge in charge of this investigation a warrant to make a

wiretapping.

in her phone.

They listen and learn that Simone and Weiss are vacationing in Europe but are

coming back to Brazil.

But we were very surprised when Simone came back by herself. She came back

alone, stayed a couple of weeks, but we knew that she was going to take us to

Solon Weiss.

All they can do is watch Simone and wait.

Finally, her phone rings.

We're listening to the conversations between Charles Dick and Simone de los

Santos. And they're going to get together, and we're going to try to join

Brazilian police officer Mara Barreto has been trailing Simone.

They decide she'll stay glued to her for the flight to Europe as well.

But they need to be certain not to spook her.

For whole three months, I was mating the surveillance on her.

So when we decided to follow her in the international flight,

I had to have my hair cut and to dye my hair, changing

the color of black hair.

At the last moment, Weiss calls off the trip.

I don't know whether Shalom Weiss felt he could see what kind of activity was

going on, he could hear about activity going on.

because, you know, Shalom always likes to think he's wired wherever he's

working. For now, it's back to the waiting game.

They hope that Weiss hasn't dumped Simone for a new favorite.

They are relieved when he calls her back. This time, Weiss wants her to go

Germany. We found out that Simone was following the advice of

Shalom Weiss.

And she always bought a ticket, an airplane ticket, for one destination

stopover. And she usually to stop in that place and change

the destination.

Weiss doesn't meet Simone at the airport.

She goes to a hotel alone.

German police react with amazing speed.

They immediately install a wire intercept on her room. Just incredible.

be done in the United States.

They get the intercept set up in her room.

In the morning, Weiss calls again to change her destination.

He must be certain that she isn't being followed. Go to Vienna, he says.

He's not going to make it easy.

At the train station in Vienna, Simone is met by a man who doesn't look like

Weiss. No beard, no yarmulke, thinner, light -colored hair.

Austrian authorities take over the tale from Mara.

and followed the man and Simone to an exclusive hotel.

We don't know what to do because they don't know who he is.

So I asked them to find out who rented the room.

And the room was rented by a guy I recognized to be Sean Weiss's brother

-law in Vienna.

So I said, that's got to be him.

Let's go get him. Let's go get him. We're going to lose the whole thing.

Austrian police storm the room, but Weiss is gone.

Simone is there, so they hold her and hope that they haven't been spotted by

Weiss. Finally, a key unlocks the door. The door opens, and the same man from

the train station walks in.

Shalom Weiss comes strolling back in, and when confronted, immediately asks

a lawyer.

Does he deny he's Shalom Weiss? No.

He asks for a lawyer, which kind of clinches it.

If Weiss goes home, he's looking at 845 years in prison.

When he was apprehended in Vienna, Austria, my phone rang and I was asked

jump in and try to save him.

Next, the U .S. still has to convince Austria to hand Weiss over. And for his

part, Weiss is not going to go peaceful.

In Austria, Sholem Weiss has been captured after being convicted of the

life insurance fraud in United States history.

He leads law enforcement on a one -year chase from Florida to Brazil to Europe,

where he is finally apprehended in a hotel room with his call girl

It's been a long, complicated manhunt, and it's not over yet.

There's a hitch.

The United States does have an extradition policy with Austria.

However... If they don't define the things that he was convicted of here as

crime, they don't extradite for those things.

So he was actually captured and released.

After all the work it takes to nab Weiss, the FBI is stunned when an

judge lets him walk free.

Some quirk in Austrian law, the Austrian courts for some reason are forced to

let him out on bond, which was quite a surprise to us.

It's a nail -biter.

Will Weiss stay in Austria and fight extradition, or will he flee again?

Weiss's attorney, Sam Burstyn, says there is a safe haven for him in

The plan that was developed provided an option for him whereby he was eligible

for Belgian citizenship, which had he taken and had he moved there

during the period of his release, he could have lived happily ever after in

Belgium.

Belgian law makes extradition of a citizen to the U .S. practically

But for the high -living Weiss, it comes down to lifestyle choices, and Belgium

is too dull.

He didn't much care for the scale of Belgium.

It didn't really suit his appetite for the pleasures of life. He had his money.

He had a car.

He had a passport. He had other countries he could have gone to.

But he stayed there and thumbed his nose at everyone.

His gamble in Austria is for a shortened prison sentence.

So Weiss chooses to stay and fight the extradition power of the United States

government. That's where the white -collar element of narcissism really

back and bites the criminal at the end. He convinced himself that he

had enough local political...

cover in Vienna to remain there. The Austrian government didn't want to wage

against the United States over this guy.

After Austria extracts a promise from federal prosecutors that Weiss will be

allowed to appeal his conviction in U .S. court, they hand him over.

But Scholem still isn't giving up.

As he boards the plane in the custody of U .S. Marshals, Weiss tries a last

-ditch effort to avoid going home.

He... had a cardiac event. The local medical establishment in Austria

that as a fake heart attack. But the pilot of the commercial jetliner refused

allow him to board.

The second time around, U .S. authorities take a little theatrical

the plane trip.

We had a young, handsome FBI agent. He was sitting there with a stethoscope and

a black bag.

However, he was never introduced as a physician.

But we think Mr. Weiss may have been influenced by that site, and we had a

uneventful flight back to the United States.

And Weiss is in prison today.

Weiss lands back on U .S. soil on June 9, 2002.

Despite being in prison, he continues to fight the legality of his extradition.

He says the U .S. lied to get the Austrians to hand him over.

For their part, the U .S. government admits that promises made were broken.

The question is, can he be held in the United States of America where

his appearance here was procured by lies, trickery, and

deceit within the legal process?

Federal courts generally believe that once a person is here,

It's not the federal judge's problem how he got here.

And therefore, the devious dealmaker will spend his life behind bars, serving

his sentence.

I understand that Sholem Weiss has once again found religion in the federal

facility that he's in.

I hope that's so, because when you're in prison for the rest of your life, I

don't know what else to do for 845 years.

Sholem Weiss is scheduled to be released on November 23rd.

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