New Jersey man pardoned by Trump imprisoned for third fraud conviction

A New Jersey man who was pardoned by President Trump during the tail-end of his first term was imprisoned again on Friday for his third fraud conviction.

Eliyahu “Eli” Weinstein, a 51-year-old man who has also used the alias Mike Konig, was handed down a 37-year sentence in Trenton, NJ on Friday.

Prosecutors estimated he milked approximately $35 million from the woefully misguided investors, who Weinstein promised access to deals involving dwindling medical supplies, baby formula and first-aid kits intended to be sent to Ukraine, according to his most recent indictment.

US District Judge Michael Shipp, who was overseeing the case, also ruled that Weinstein must pay $44,294,803 in restitution, effective immediately, according to court documents.

In March, Weinstein was convicted on charges that he helped defraud dozens of investors.

The con artist’s prior two convictions, for which he was originally set to serve 24 years in prison, were commuted by Trump on Jan. 19, 2021 — his last day before leaving office during his first term.

Trump ordered that Weinstein be released on the measly eight years he’d served plus three years of supervised release, according to his indictment.

Prosecutors said that Weinstein leapt back into his old schemes soon after his release.

Weinstein wasn’t shy about his nefarious habits and plainly told his conspirators that he “finagled, and Ponzied, and lied to people to cover us,” according to court documents.

In another message, Weinstein told a conspirator, “I slept for 12 hours straight the first night . . . And then proceeded to lie to all my investors, which was real fun,” according to court documents.

Weinstein’s first two convictions involved a real estate Ponzi scheme and another plot he committed while on pretrial release.

His 2021 pardon was just one of 143 Trump doled out during his final hours as president.

Others in the lineup included Trump’s former White House strategist Steve Bannon, who had been arrested for an alleged scam concerning private donations for the US-Mexico border wall construction, and a drug dealer from Long Island who was reconvicted for molestation last week.

Trump issued another round of pardons on Nov. 10 for 77 people connected to the plot to overturn the 2020 presidential election, including some of his most vocal allies like Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell.