Brooklyn Man sentenced by the ‘Seinfeldian’ scheme

Thomas John Sfraga, 56, was sentenced to almost four years in prison for defrauding investors of more than $ 2 million for companies, including the Vandelay contracting corporation.

An influential cryptographic Brooklyn who convinced friends to invest in a false company that refers to the Seinfeld program was sentenced to almost four years in a federal prison for the multimillion -dollar Ponzi scheme, officials of the Department of Justice announced on Friday.

Thomas John Sfraga, a unique popular podcaster that used the “TJ Stone”, defrauded at least 17 people of more than $ 2 million who convinced them to invest in their businesses, including the Vandelay hiring corporation, a reference to a gag in the successful program.

Investments in the Vandelay company of Sfraga proved to be as false as Vandelay Industries, an alleged latex manufacturing company, in Seinfeld. In the television program, George Costanza Invents the company To convince state bureaucrats, you are looking for work to be able to receive unemployment checks.

But Sfraga, 56, was not looking to deceive government workers; He stole friends, neighbors, old classmates and even his son’s baseball coach, according to Federal Court documents.

“Sfraga cruelly stole friends, neighbors next door and the parents of children who played in teams with their own children, as well as individual cryptocurrency investors,” said John J. Durham, the United States prosecutor of the Eastern District of New York. “There was nothing funny in its use of a company Seinfeldian, Vandelay Industries, to carry out this fraud, which caused serious financial and emotional damage to the working men and women who trusted it.”

Sfraga directed his scams from 2016 to 2022. He told the victims, most Brooklyn, Long Island and Staten Island, were investing in real estate and cryptocurrency companies. Instead, he used the money for personal expenses and to pay the victims to lull To trust him, judicial presentations say.

The spurious operation was unbalanced in a more ignominious than that of Costanza. Investors finally put on and Sfraga fled Arizona under a false identity, federal prosecutors said. He then fled again to Nevada, where he was finally arrested for not paying his account in a casino in Las Vegas, according to judicial records.

American district judge Frederick Block sentenced the 56 -year -old in Brooklyn on Thursday to 45 months in prison after declare yourself guilty of wire fraud in May 2024. The judge also ordered Sfraga to lose $ 1.3 million. The amount that Sfraga will have to pay his victims will be determined at a later date, Federal authorities said.

A lawyer from Sfraga did not respond to requests for comments.

17 victims of the Ponzi ‘Seinfeldian’ scheme

Among the victims, federal prosecutors said, were the people Sfraga had met from elementary school and the parents of children who played in the same team as their son. He found victims in cryptocurrency networks and stole money from a young couple for their wedding, prosecutors said.

The companies in which they paid included a company called Build Strong Homes and a “virtual wallet” cryptocurrency company, according to judicial presentations.

“For a challenging moment in my life, since I faced a difficult and expensive divorce, (Sfraga) and I met socially,” a victim told prosecutors. “He acknowledged my financial struggles and offered a way to help. . . . He assured me, as a friend. “

A person from Brooklyn thought he joined Sfraga in an intelligent commercial scheme, according to an affidavit of arrest. The victim worked in a bank and agreed to give Sfraga advice on mortgage executions so that the two could invest in the properties and resell them. Sfraga made some payments to the victims before cutting communication, according to judicial documents.

He cheated a victim of Long Island and the father of that victim to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars for real estate projects, according to the affidavit. He then convinced the same victim to give him $ 50,000 received in wedding gifts, according to judicial documents. When the victim demanded the money, Sfraga said that his father, who allegedly lived in Alaska, was dying and had to see him.

The Vandelay Corporation of Sfraga was allegedly linked to a cryptocurrency company, without a name in the declaration of the affidavit, with offices in Manhattan. He met another victim in the company building in Manhattan, where he presented himself as TJ Stone, in apparent reference an alias used in the podcast 3 people like this; And he convinced him to give him $ 30,000 for Vandelay “and wallets,” says the advanced statement. Sfraga charged the check that day.

When they scheduled an appointment for Sfraga to create a “wallet and” on the victim’s phone, he did not appear; And when the victim requested the money, Sfraga said he was in the hospital after suffering a heart attack, according to judicial documents. Then Sfraga cut the contact.

“Instead of investing money, I used some of this to cover my own expenses and to pay previous investors and commercial partners,” Sfraga told a judge at a guilt hearing. “I knew that some of the guarantees and guarantees that I made to investors were false, and that this was wrong.”

Flight and arrest in the Las Vegas casino

The demand of investors for their money grew and Sfraga fled to Arizona, where he spent his adolescence, according to prosecutors.

Sfraga lived there under a false identity in his return, according to judicial documents. Police collected an unrelated real estate crime. The Local Police discovered his real name, knew that he had an opening order and arrested him on September 18, 2023, according to prosecutors. He published the cash bonus of $ 3,600 and fled again.

The police in Nevada arrested Sfraga for an unrelated issue, this time without paying their invoice at the Wynn casino in Las Vegas, on December 23 of that year, prosecutors said.

The judicial presentations say that Sfraga was delivered in federal custody by an arrest warrant in the Eastern District of New York, where he was transported and took the courts in Brooklyn on January 22, 2024.

Where did Sfraga come from?

The mystery of Sfraga’s scams is that he enjoyed a decent life, prosecutors said.

He was married to a wife described as “incredibly solidarity” in judicial documents. He had two healthy children who were part of the local teams. And some of their commercial companies were successful, winning up to $ 100,000 annually, according to prosecutors.

The judicial presentations say that he also made a “decent salary” of his podcast business that had more than one million listeners and was sponsored by advertisers from 2017 to 2018. The podcast, a comedy program called 3 people like thisIt has more than 100 episodes in Apple’s podcasts.

He spent his adolescence in Arizona. Sfraga moved to the State with his mother after his parents divorced, according to judicial presentations. He went to good schools and lived in a decent area. The prosecutors said that it remained out of trouble at that time, apart from an “incident” without a name. He almost played university baseball for the Arizona State University, according to judicial presentations.

He married and had two children when he returned to Brooklyn as an adult, according to judicial documents.

“(Sfraga) had all the opportunities to enjoy a productive and respectful life of the law,” prosecutors said. “Instead, he chose to deceive and scam his neighbors and friends of his savings to support his lifestyle.”

Michael Loria is a national reporter on the US Breaking News desktop. Uu today. Contact him at [email protected], @mchael_mchael or in (202) 290-4585.