Posted on 03/29/2009 12:05:12 PM PDT by Born Conservative
A former Hazleton polka band leader who defrauded fans and other investors in 22 states of millions of dollars is staying in a Scranton halfway house as he finishes his prison term, which is set to end next month.
Jan Lewan is in the Community Corrections Management program of the federal Bureau of Prisons and due to be released April 16.
While in a halfway house, inmates are expected to work as they prepare to return to life outside the prison system, Carla Wilson of the bureau’s northeast regional office in Philadelphia said.
John F. Mikulak, a director of a documentary film about Lewan, said Lewan works in a soup kitchen and at times has permission to leave the halfway house operated by Catholic Social Services at 409-411 Olive Ave.
Apparently, Lewan wants to return to Hazleton when his sentence expires, Mikulak said.
Lewan entered prison in January 2004, but on April 18 that year, another inmate at the Delaware Correctional Center in Smyrna, Del., slit Lewan’s throat.
He survived the attack, but two years later was experiencing heart problems when Delaware commuted the remainder of his sentence.
Lewan later entered the federal prison system to finish his term while being sent to several centers, including one in Kentucky.
Federal charges against him consolidated charges from other states in which Lewan admitted wrongdoing.
At the peak of his popularity, Lewan, a Polish immigrant whose full name is Lewandowski, received a Grammy nomination. He performed to energetic crowds in Atlantic City, N.J., and Las Vegas, Nev., and led tour groups to Europe that sometimes included visits with Pope John Paul II.
In Hazleton, Lewan operated a gift and jewelry store, and his wife, Rhonda, won the Mrs. Pennsylvania pageant in 1998. She relinquished her title after information surfaced to show that the judges’ scorecards were changed to make her the winner.
In 2001, a bus carrying Lewan and his band crashed in Florida, killing two musicians and injuring Lewan’s son, who was a teenager then.
Lewan filed for bankruptcy in 2002.
The next year he faced charges of defrauding investors on unregistered securities that he sold.
He promised investors returns of 12 percent and, later, 20 percent, which he couldn’t fulfill.
“He was an unregistered seller of unregistered securities. He was also guilty of fraud under securities statutes in the process. He wasn’t telling investors the necessary information and was making misrepresentation,” Michael Byrne, general counsel for the Pennsylvania Securities Commission, said. “My recollection was the whole thing was a Ponzi scheme.”
In such a scheme, named for Charles Ponzi, the first criminal to use it, the manager uses money from new investors to pay old investors until the scam collapses.
Several states, including Pennsylvania, banned Lewan from selling securities.
Pennsylvania first told him to stop selling securities in 2000 when he offered to repay investors in a settlement.
Lewan quickly violated the settlement by resuming sales.
He still owes millions of dollars to investors, and New Jersey assessed a civil fine against him of $950,000.
While Lewan was in prison, Mikulak and Joshua Brown directed “The Mystery of the Polka King,” which aired on Court TV in 2007. Shawn Kelly, a former editor at the Standard-Speaker, is the associate producer.
They expanded the film into a feature-length documentary, “The Man Who Would Be Polka King,” that was presented March 21 at the Boston Underground Film Festival.
Mikulak said Lewan’s financial misadventures parallel those of Bernard Madoff, the former chief of the NASDAQ stock exchange who pleaded guilty after being charged in a scam that involved up to $50 billion.
“The way Madoff operated was similar. He preyed on his own ethnic group,” said Mikulak, adding that Lewan’s deals involved much smaller sums.
In the film, one of Lewan’s victims expresses the wish that Lewan had died during the attack in prison.
“These people were placing tremendous trust in Lewandowski with respect to their life savings. You can understand why there would be some fire in their position,” Byrne said. “You have a middle-class person who works all their lives. They save. They do thrift, and then somebody comes along. They don’t get involved because they’re greedy. An awful lot of people who are aging, coming into retirement, are just worried about keeping up. It’s a tremendous fear.”
I think you mean “pitza”. Scamutz is the whey portion of mozzarella that’s put on pitza, sausage or meatball hoagies, etc. I’m from slightly north of there, and I had never heard of it until I moved southwest of Luzerne County and was exposed more to Hazleton traditions.
I don’t know. I think the victims have to eat the loss.
Yeah Meatball and scamutz, I lived on those things along with Coney Island hotdogs and Third Base hoagies when I was a kid. Go Mounts!!
Up in the Pittston area, it’s “henna or no, cuz?”
Yeah we say henna too, spelling, well I never really spelled the word but I've seen it spelled numerous ways..henna ya know
LOL
Pittston, we used to go catfish and bass fishing up there around Ransom that was years ago in the 70's.
Born in Scranton in 1955 but I'm Hazleton raised moved from Hazleton in 1979.
Born in West Pittston in 1963; moved to Columbia County about 20 years ago.
The lingo of “da valley”, Hazleton/Schuylkill County, and Scranton is interesting. Heyna, mingya, etc.
I used to work in Ransom while I was in college in the early 1980’s-Potlatch (formerly Swanee Paper). They dumped lots of chemicals into the Susquehanna; I sure hope you were fishing upstream from there.
“I think you mean “pitza”. Scamutz is the whey portion of mozzarella that’s put on pitza, sausage or meatball hoagies, etc. I’m from slightly north of there, and I had never heard of it until I moved southwest of Luzerne County and was exposed more to Hazleton traditions.”
Pitza, no doubt. We just ordered, and the proprietor brought it to the table and pointed out that it was “real scamutz”. We looked at him kinda funny and smiled, LOL.
Isn’t there a real killer bakery in Hazleton? I may be confusing it with somewhere else, but there’s one somewhere around there that could put weight on an anorexic just from a walk-through.
I live about 20 minutes west of Hazleton, but don’t get over there too often, so I can’t answer about the bakery. But if you find out what the name is, let me know!
“I live about 20 minutes west of Hazleton, but don’t get over there too often, so I can’t answer about the bakery. But if you find out what the name is, let me know!”
OK, the challenge has been issued. Let’s see if Pop’s memory is simply taxed, or if this is for real. (Actually, I sent an email to a fellow salesman who still works the area...)
No, Yosh Schmenge. Yosh and Stan were "The Happy Wanderers". They don't make them like "The Cabbage Roll and Coffee Polka" anymore.
Senapes Pitza and Tavern is the one most talk about. The Hazleton I knew was the most wonderful place if you liked Italian and Slavic (Hunky as they say up there) foods.
You had Senapes and Longos bakeries making "cold pitz", until you had it fresh with a cold beer you haven't been to heaven. Every Friday the Greek Catholic churches had the ladies making pirogies. Carmens Italian-American restaurant, homemade pasta and the best Beef Braciola and Baked Ziti you could ever want. Coney Island Restaurant and Jimmy's Hot Lunch had chilli dogs that would make you weep for more. There was always a fight over who had the best dogs.
That wasn't all, it has been said there was a church, a bar and a bowling alley on every block in the Hazleton, Freeland, McAdoo area and that was almost true, so many small bars had their own great food and every summer the churches had their block parties and lots and lots of delicious potato cakes.
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