Alexander Leszczynski convicted of contract killing
According to prosecutors, prison inmate Alexander Leszczynski attempted to have two fraud victims killed. (Mugshot: Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office)
A man who faked a pardon for former President Donald Trump received the second half of his sentence for part of a wide-ranging and almost bloody series of schemes.
Alexander Leszczynski, 25, was sentenced Wednesday to 17 years and six months in federal prison for plotting to murder two of his fraud victims. He must serve these consecutively, one after the other, up to the sentence he received last month in a related fraud case: 17 years and six months in federal prison.
After To Documents And Prosecutor Press releasesLeszczynski used fake charities, including Love & Bliss, to fraudulently obtain approximately $195,910 in COVID-19 relief funds for businesses. In addition, he engaged in a check kiting scheme to deposit $2.7 million worth of worthless checks into Love & Bliss’ business account.
He laundered the ill-gotten money through several accounts in order to hide it from the authorities. It did not work. On January 11, 2022, Leszczynski transferred $337,000 to purchase gold, but the U.S. government seized the funds.
“After learning of the seizure, Leszczynski attempted to induce GoldSilver.com to release the funds by providing them with a fake presidential pardon purporting to have been signed by President Donald J. Trump,” prosecutors wrote.
At that point, Trump had only been president for about a year.
As for the contract killing, it stems from a scheme in which he applied for a fraudulent warranty deed to grant himself and his companies ten properties across the country. One of these was a home in Redington Shores, Florida.
The homeowners sued to correct the deed. Leszczynski responded by harassing her and her attorneys in letters, emails and faxes, prosecutors said.
He was finally charged on April 22 in connection with forgery and other crimes. While locked up in the Pinellas County Jail, he tried to find someone who could kill the homeowners.
He claimed to have hidden $45,000 at home to hire a killer, prosecutors said.
His reasoning: Prosecutors would have to drop their charges if the victims died, and he could get the property for himself.
A confidential informant agreed to put him in touch with a hit man. Instead, it was an undercover agent.
In the telephone conversation with the “killer,” Leszczynski shared the victims’ names, addresses, descriptions, approximate ages and other details so that the “killer” could find their pictures online.
They negotiated a price of $30,000, with the cover story being that it was tuition fees. He repeatedly claimed that he wanted the homeowners dead.
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