Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Pastimes : Whodunit? Two Stockbrokers Murdered in Jersey; Reference -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jeffrey S. Mitchell who wrote (19)	11/2/1999 10:10:00 PM
From: Jeffrey S. Mitchell	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 79

Re: 10/30/99 - 2 slain Internet stock promoters were informants on fraud 2 slain Internet stock promoters were informants on fraud ASSOCIATED PRESS COLTS NECK, N.J. - Authorities are investigating whether two Internet penny stock promoters who were shot to death execution style in a mansion were killed because of their roles as government informants in fraud cases. Maier Lehmann provided authorities with information in a 1992 federal insurance fraud case in which he and more than 100 others were charged, his lawyer, Richard Horowitz, said yesterday. Horowitz said Lehmann was so helpful that the assistant U.S. attorney prosecuting the case wrote a letter to the sentencing judge "extolling his cooperation." He did not know whether Lehmann acted as an informant in any other cases. Alain Chalem, the other victim slain on Monday, tried to help investigators uncover illicit dealings in the penny stock industry, a former acquaintance said. "Alain was a government informant," said the acquaintance, who spoke on the condition that he not be identified. "They [the government] can deny it all they want, but he was." One case involved an alleged scam with a small drug-making company that ultimately could not be proved to be fraudulent, the associate said. Monmouth County authorities said they are considering a possible organized-crime link to the killings. They also are examining whether the attack was simply the work of a disgruntled investor. Neither county Prosecutor John Kaye nor First Assistant Prosecutor Alton Kenney would discuss the case yesterday, and John Heine, a spokesman for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, would not say whether Chalem or Lehmann worked as informants for the SEC. phillynews.com