Posted on 01/31/2004 8:55:31 PM PST by Born Conservative
Hazleton polka musician is taken to Delaware jail. He was found guilty of a securities scheme. By TERRIE MORGAN-BESECKER tmorgan@leader.net
Disgraced polka king Jan Lewan traded the glitz of the stage for the starkness of a prison cell Friday as he began serving a five-year prison sentence imposed that morning by a Delaware judge. The once beloved and trusted entertainer was led off to state prison after entering a plea to a racketeering charge Friday in Wilmington, the last of six charges leveled against him for an securities scheme that cost two Delaware families $87,000.
The sentence ends the first of three criminal cases filed against Lewan, 62, of Hazleton, by two states and the federal government. Lewan, also known as Jan Lewandowski, faces sentencing on federal charges in Pennsylvania and state charges in New Jersey.
In the federal case, filed in U.S. District Court in Scranton, Lewan pleaded guilty in December to mail fraud and wire fraud in connection with a scheme that bilked 400 people in 21 states, including several from the Hazleton area, out of more than $1 million.
Prosecutors said Lewan promised investors returns of 12 to 20 percent on money invested in the Jan Lewan Orchestra, the Jan Lewan gift shop and other entities. However, the polka empire fell on hard times and Lewan was unable to pay promised returns when the notes matured, prosecutors said. To cover up the financial crisis, Lewan admitted he began paying some investors with funds received from other investors.
In the Delaware case, Lewan was charged with two counts of theft against the elderly and one count each of racketeering, securities fraud, selling unregistered securities and sale of securities by an unregistered agent. He pleaded guilty to the racketeering charge on Friday. Guilty pleas on the other counts were entered in December.
Calling Lewan's actions "inexcusable," Superior Court Judge Susan DelPesco tacked on an additional three years to the two-year mandatory minimum sentence. A Superior Court judge in Delaware is similar to a county court of common pleas judge in Pennsylvania.
Delaware Deputy Attorney General Catherine Damavandi said she sought a stiff sentence, arguing Lewan used his celebrity status to dupe average citizens into buying the unregistered promissory notes.
"In this case, the families scammed were hard-working families who saved their hard-earned dollars. Their trust was betrayed by Mr. Lewandowski," Damavandi said.
Damavandi also said Lewan showed no remorse, noting Pennsylvania authorities told him in 1992 and 2000 to stop selling unregistered securities, but he continued to do so. "Each time he said he did not know what he was doing was wrong. This was the same old song and dance."
Under the terms of his Delaware plea, Lewan will serve that sentence first. Any prison time imposed in the federal or New Jersey cases will be served simultaneously with the Delaware sentence. If those sentences exceed the Delaware sentence, the remainder of the term will be served in a federal and/or New Jersey prison.
Damavandi said Lewan showed little reaction when the sentence was imposed. In brief comments to the court, he apologized to his victims and promised he would try to repay them.
"Someone call the cops!"
REDUNDANCY ALERT!
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