Re: 10/28/99 - Online penny-stock deals believed linked to killings
Online penny-stock deals believed linked to killings
Published in the Asbury Park Press 10/28/99
By SHERI TABACHNIK
FREEHOLD BUREAU
THE EXECUTION-style slaying of two penny-stock promoters in Colts Neck was somehow connected to the men's online business, and they probably were killed by someone they knew, Monmouth County Prosecutor John Kaye said yesterday.
MICHAEL GOLDFINGER photo Investigators carry out files and computer equipment from the home in Colts Neck where two men were slain late Monday or early Tuesday. Business data files in the computers may provide a clue as to who shot the men.
No arrests have been made, but authorities are questioning a Clifton man who was the third partner in the Internet stock business with the slain men, Alain Chalem and Maier Lehmann, Kaye said. He declined to identify him.
But Kaye also said no one connected to the victims has been ruled out as a suspect except Jesse Scarola, the ex-husband of Chalem's housemate, Kimberly Scarola.
The prosecutor did not explain why he thought the murders were related to the Internet stock business, but said his office had some leads. He said the crime scene led him to believe the victims knew their killer.
Chalem, 41, and Lehmann, 37, were found at 1 a.m. Tuesday in the dining room of the home at 3 Bluebell Road, where Chalem lived with his girlfriend, Kimberly Scarola, 39, and her 13-year-old son. Mother and son were away when the killings occurred.
The victims were found face down on the marble floor, cellular phones a few inches from their bodies. A nearby table had business papers spread out, indicating they might have been working.
There were signs of a struggle, Kaye said.
"I don't think this was a random stop by," the prosecutor said. "They knew them."
A source familiar with the investigation said detectives think there might have been more than one killer.
Chalem, Lehmann and the Clifton man were partners in a Web site managed in Hungary and registered in Panama, www.stockinvestor.com, Kaye said. The business, run out of Chalem's house, hawked small-cap businesses and new stock listings.
The men sent voluminous e-mailings to potential investors and were compensated by receiving stocks at discounted fees, he said. Once investors bought the stock and the price rose, the men would sell their shares, Kaye said. Registering the Web site in a foreign country kept them free of SEC scrutiny, he said.
Lehmann, whose nickname was "Dr.," was a defendant in a penny-stock case the SEC brought against Electro Optical System Corp. last year. The corporation's stock rose from 50 cents to over $5 in one day. The SEC said defendants in its lawsuit distributed false information about the company in news releases and Internet newsletters.
Late yesterday, the prosecutor's office obtained a search warrant so they could remove numerous computers from Chalem's house and duplicate the hard drives, Kaye said.
Meanwhile, a county medical examiner performed an autopsy on Lehmann, who was married and the father of five children. Results revealed that Lehmann was shot once in the leg and three times in the head, the prosecutor said. A county medical examiner is expected to conduct an autopsy on Chalem today.
Kaye said that it appeared that Chalem was sitting in a chair when struck with the first of numerous shots. One of the shots was a contact wound to his left temple, Kaye said.
Detectives, who dusted the entire residence for fingerprints, found bullets and casings in various areas of the house, which was sparsely furnished, Kaye said.
The bodies were discovered by two friends of Chalem's who arrived at 1 a.m. A source identified one of the men as Allen L. Conkling, Fort Lee. The other was not identified. Kaye said the friends got together frequently and it was not unusual for one of them to spend the night at the Bluebell Road home.
The two visitors, who spent Monday working at a North Jersey tanning salon one of them owns, had been in touch with Chalem many times during the day, Kaye said.
Their last conversation with him was at 8:30 p.m., the prosecutor said. After that, Chalem no longer answered their calls, so the men decided to drive to Colts Neck.
They found the bodies, called 911, and departed, frightened the killer or killers might still be there. They waited for police in their car at the end of the street.
Chalem had told his friends that he planned to drive to Tennessee Tuesday to meet a friend who was chartering a plane to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., so he could vacation with Scarola at the couple's condominium, the prosecutor said.
Scarola, who was in Florida when Chalem was shot, had left Colts Neck on Friday, Kaye said. Her son was staying with his father in Staten Island, N.Y., Kaye said.
"This is an unusual killing," Kaye said. "There are other agencies interested in this case."
Along with the prosecutor's office, state police, Colts Neck police and other law enforcement agencies are participating in the investigation, said Kaye. He refused to identify the other agencies.
The Bluebell Road home is owned by Scarola's father, Russell Candela of Brooklyn and East Hampton, N.Y. He purchased the estate in December for $1.1 million. His daughter, grandson and Chalem moved in during the late spring and early summer.
Chalem, whose previous address is Hampton Bays, N.Y., owned Allen's Acres, a motel in that town.
Prior to that, he was part owner of Heartbreak Hotel near the Hunter Mountain ski area in the Catskills. One of the men who found his body Tuesday was his partner in the hotel, Kaye said. Heartbreak Hotel burned down in November 1994.
Sheri Tabachnik: (732) 863-1500, Ext. 7751
Published on October 28, 1999
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