A New Jersey man, Eliyahu “Eli” Weinstein, also known as “Mike Konig,” was sentenced to 37 years in prison on November 14, 2025, for his role in a Ponzi-like fraud scheme that led to more than $44 million in investor losses. His co-conspirator, Aryeh “Ari” Bromberg, received a 12-year sentence. Both were ordered to pay over $44 million in restitution to victims.
The sentencing followed a six-week jury trial before U.S. District Judge Michael A. Shipp in Trenton federal court earlier this year. Weinstein and Bromberg were convicted of multiple charges including conspiracy to commit securities fraud, wire fraud, money laundering, making false statements to the U.S. Probation Office, and obstruction of justice. Weinstein faced additional convictions for making false statements to probation authorities.
Five other individuals—Christopher Anderson, Richard Curry, Shlomo Erez, Alaa Hattab, and Joel Wittels—previously pleaded guilty in connection with the same scheme and are awaiting sentencing.
Weinstein had previously been convicted twice for defrauding investors out of approximately $230 million through separate schemes involving real estate and additional fraud while on pretrial release. He began serving supervised release on January 19, 2021.
Soon after his release from prison, Weinstein started a new scheme using Optimus Investments Inc., operating under the alias Mike Konig through Bromberg and Wittels to hide his identity from potential investors. According to secretly recorded conversations presented at trial, Weinstein admitted that investors would not provide funds if they knew about his involvement.
Investor funds were mainly collected through Tryon Management Group LLC (Tryon), owned by Anderson and Curry. The company promised high returns on investments related to COVID-19 masks and test kits, baby formula shortages, and first-aid kits allegedly destined for Ukraine during wartime conditions. Investors believed these deals were legitimate and did not know about Weinstein’s participation.
When Optimus could no longer pay its investors in 2021, the conspirators used money from new investors across both companies to make payments to existing ones—a method typical of Ponzi schemes—while falsely claiming these payments came from genuine investment returns.
In August 2022, Hattab disclosed Weinstein’s true identity within the group. Recorded meetings captured Weinstein admitting misappropriation of investor funds: “I finagled, and Ponzied, and lied to people to cover us.” Even after this revelation among co-conspirators Anderson and Curry agreed with others involved—including Weinstein—to continue hiding his identity from investors while seeking more funds.
Overall losses totaled more than $44 million out of over $88 million raised fraudulently from investors.
Weinstein and Bromberg also conspired to launder proceeds from their activities and lied about assets owed as restitution for previous crimes exceeding $200 million. They concealed business activities prohibited by terms of supervised release; recordings included admissions by Weinstein regarding hidden assets: “I just told you something that no one in the world knows because I hid money.”
Acting U.S. Attorney Alina Habba credited special agents with the FBI’s Newark office under Acting Special Agent Stefanie Roddy as well as IRS-Criminal Investigation agents led by Special Agent Jenifer L. Piovesan for their work leading up to these convictions.
Assistant United States Attorneys Carolyn Silane (Chief of Economic Crimes Unit) and Marko Pesce (Deputy Chief of Bank Integrity/Money Laundering/Recovery Unit) represented the government during prosecution.
Defense counsel for Weinstein included Ilana Haramati and Henry E. Mazurek; Marc Agnifilo and Jacob Kaplan represented Bromberg.
