Re: 10/28/99 - Stock Slaying Baffles Police
Stock Slaying Baffles Police
No Answers Yet in Execution-style Slaying of Stock Promoters
Scene of a double killing of two stock brokers, in Colts Neck, N.J. The two men, Alan Chalem and Mayir Lehmann, were found shot to death in the dining room of the mansion Tuesday. (Jeff Zelevansky/AP Photo)
By Martha Raffaele
The Associated Press
C O L T S N E C K, N.J., Oct. 28 ? Two Internet penny stock promoters found shot to death had ties to ?shady? business dealings, which may ultimately have led to their execution-style killings, a prosecutor said.
Alain Chalem, 41, and Mayir Lehmann, 37, were found early Tuesday face down on the bloodsained marble floor of the estate Chalem shared with his girlfriend and her 13-year-old son.
Though investigators have not pinpointed a motive or suspects, Monmouth County Prosecutor John Kaye said the attack likely was at least partly tied to the pair?s penny stock Web operation, www.stockinvestor.com, or other ventures.
?It was probably related to the victims? business activities,? Kaye said, ?and the killer or killers feared something else more than the loss of money.?
Stockbroker Charged Last Year
The Securities and Exchange Commission last year charged Lehmann and other defendants with distributing false information about companies after Electro Optical System Corp. stock rose from 50 cents to more than $5 per share in one day.
Investors eventually lost at least $10 million in that scheme, authorities have said. Lehmann agreed in January to pay $630,000 in penalties.
Between 1994 and 1996, Chelam worked at the brokerage A.S. Goldman, which was indicted in July in New York on charges connected with stock manipulation, forgery and illegal trading. The firm has denied the accusations, and Chelam was not named in those charges.
Web Site Promoted Business
The men?s Web site used mass e-mails to promote penny stocks to prospective investors. In exchange, the partners received commissions or discounted stock from securities firms. The Web site was registered in Panama and managed in Hungary.
?Penny? or ?micro-cap? stocks are cheap, highly speculative securities that are vulnerable to investor manipulation. Authorities suspect the victims? Web site was based overseas to avoid SEC scrutiny. Kaye called the men?s business practices ?shady.?
Investigators believe at least two gunmen attacked the men late Monday while they were reviewing business papers in the $1.1 million home. Chalem and Lehmann were first crippled by the gunfire, then shot point-blank in their heads, authorities said.
Chalem was shot once in the chest and five times in the head, while Lehmann, of Woodmere, N.Y., was shot in the leg and once in the back of the head, Kaye said. Their cellular telephones were inches from their hands, and they were still ringing on Wednesday.
?People are still calling these people, and we?re answering the phone,? Kaye said.
No Signs of Burglary
The home?s wrought-iron gates were open and its front door unlocked, but there were no signs of burglary, Kaye said.
Kaye said the ex-husband of Chalem?s girlfriend has been eliminated as a suspect and there are few leads, no suspects and no murder weapon.
Chalem had lived on the 16-acre property for up to eight months with his girlfriend. Her father owns the home in this small, wealthy community about an hour from New York City.
The friends who found the bodies said that Chalem had planned to drive to Tennessee and then charter a plane to Florida to meet his girlfriend, authorities said.
The friends told authorities they had talked with both Chalem and Lehmann throughout the day on Monday, then could not reach them later that night.
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