Goldmen Ex-CFO Offered to Pay Hit Man in Stock Tips, Tape Shows
New York, Dec. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Facing trial on fraud charges and a judge he perceived as hostile, A.S. Goldmen & Co.'s former chief financial officer ordered her execution and agreed to pay a fellow inmate in cash and stock tips to carry it out, a taped conversation between the two men reveals.
``I'm gonna need a hell of a tip,'' the inmate told Stuart Winkler, ex-CFO of the Goldmen brokerage, as the pair plotted to kill New York State Supreme Court Justice Leslie Crocker Snyder, according to the tape, which was played today at Winkler's trial. Winkler and the man he's accused of hiring to murder the judge were jailed together at the Manhattan Detention Complex.
Winkler told the inmate that he couldn't guarantee the tips would pay off, according to the tape.
``When you ask me, `Give me one great stock,' I can't,'' Winkler replied, according to the tape. ``If you want me to say that I think these stocks are good, then there's three or four stocks that I always, you know -- that I like.''
Winkler faces 25 years in prison if convicted of charges he plotted with inmate Carl Legan to kill Snyder. Legan, a career robber, weapons dealer, and drug gang enforcer, testified today that he reached out to prosecutors and agreed to wear a wire to record conversations in which he and Winkler planned the judge's assassination.
Snyder, who once sentenced the leader of a Dominican drug gang to 232 years in prison, was never harmed. The case is before Snyder's colleague, State Supreme Court Justice Carol Berkman.
Entrapment Claim
As he and Legan spoke, Winkler was in custody on securities fraud charges and was unable to make the $1 million bail Snyder had set for him. He denies charges that he solicited Legan's services as a hired killer, asserting that Legan entrapped him. Legan escaped life in prison on a robbery case by cooperating with prosecutors.
``I know nothing about this world,'' Winkler could be heard telling Legan, 35, as they discussed the planned murder. ``I don't know if I'm going insane having this conversation.''
At other times, though, Winkler is heard insisting he wants Snyder killed, suggesting that Legan target the judge at Forlini's, a courthouse-area restaurant in lower Manhattan that's popular with judges and prosecutors, the tapes show.
``She's the worst judge in New York State,'' Winkler said. ``She's so pro-prosecution, it's ridiculous.''
Winkler last year was among 49 people accused of helping A.S. Goldmen pull off a $100 million securities scam. He was freed on $1 million bail, then violated the conditions of his release by chartering a private plane for a Cayman Islands vacation, prosecutors said.
Modified Bail
In response, Snyder modified Winkler's bail, requiring that it be fully secured -- a condition he could not meet after nearly $8 million of his assets were frozen by the government in a related civil case.
After he was taken into custody for the second time, Winkler began plotting Snyder's death, agreeing to provide stock tips and pay Legan $35,000, prosecutors said. The two men never agreed on how the murder was to be carried out, prosecutors said.
In its heyday, scandal-plagued A.S. Goldmen had offices in Manhattan; Naples, Florida; and Iselin, New Jersey, with nearly 100 brokers and 50,000 accounts. The firm was created in 1988 and effectively shut down 10 years later when authorities searched its offices.
Winkler, once a field supervisor in the National Association of Securities Dealers' New York office, is accused of helping Goldmen conceal its misdeeds from regulators. He faces 25 years in prison if convicted on the securities fraud charges.
Dec/08/2000 15:55 ET
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