Free Republic

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...

SCRANTON - He had just pleaded guilty to felony charges that could send him to prison for up to 10 years, but polka king Jan Lewan's spirits seemed high as he left a federal courtroom Tuesday. "Yes, merry Christmas," Lewan said when asked by a reporter if he had anything to say about his plea to bilking hundreds of investors out of at least $1 million. Four of his investment scam victims who attended the brief hearing were not nearly as jovial. "I know the money is lost. The satisfaction is he will be going to jail," said one victim,...