Re: 4/25/04 - Asbury Park Press: Slain pair's associate may hold key to case
Slain pair's associate may hold key to case
Published in the Asbury Park Press 4/25/04
By JAMES W. PRADO ROBERTS
STAFF WRITER
Four-and-a-half years after two stock traders were shot execution-style in a Colts Neck mansion, authorities say one associate implicated last week in a related stock fraud case may hold the key to the murders.
But that business partner, Joe T. Logan Jr., has refused to tell investigators what he knows about the two dead men, Albert Alain Chalem and Maier Lehmann.
Logan is not a suspect in the killings, prosecutors say. But they say he was one of the last people to see them alive. Prosecutors say betweeen five to 10 people involved in business deals with the two victims may have arranged to kill them.
In August 2000, Logan refused to answer questions from a grand jury investigating the double homicide, such as who had threatened to kill Chalem, 41, and Lehmann, 37.
"The bottom line is he was a close intimate associate of Mr. Chalem and they communicated many times just about every day," John F. Loughrey, an assistant Monmouth County prosecutor handling the case, said of Logan. "That alone would lead us to want to speak to him in great detail about their personal dealings."
Prosecutors have never said what they wanted to ask Logan before the grand jury, which meets in secret. But a sealed ruling by Superior Court Judge Lawrence M. Lawson, which made its way into Logan's public divorce record in Passaic County, detailed what prosecutors wanted to know.
The prosecutors' questions indicate that following the killings Logan feared for his life, that Chalem and Lehmann had their lives threatened by several Russian emigres, that Chalem said he would protect Lehmann against someone Lehmann feared, and that Chalem had punched Logan in the face.
Chalem and Lehmann were shot at the head of the large dining room table in the sparsely furnished house Chalem shared with his fiance. Both men had mobile telephones in their hands when they died.
Chalem, who reportedly had organized crime connections, was shot in his nose, both ears and forehead, prompting speculation that the shooting was a message from the mob. Lehmann, who lived in Long Island, had three bullets fired into the left side of his head.
County prosecutors say Logan, 36, was involved in stock deals with both shooting victims and met with Chalem and Lehmann at the house on Bluebell Road in Colts Neck the morning of the murders, Oct. 25, 1999. Caller ID records show Logan placed six calls to the Colts Neck house in a period of two hours that evening. The men were found dead around 1 a.m. Oct. 26.
When two county detectives knocked at the door of Logan's home in Clifton that morning to ask about the dead men, Logan sent his then-wife, Ada V. Garay, to open the door. When Logan emerged, he said he had been hiding in their bedroom closet, calling his lawyer on a cell phone "because he thought some bad guys were coming to get him," Loughrey said.
The incident led investigators to believe he was afraid for his life -- and to wonder why he hadn't called the police.
"It was the first thing that we thought of -- that there was someone at the door that he didn't anticipate would be receiving him with open arms, unless the arms had weapons in them," Loughrey said in an interview. "We believed he was afraid and we wanted to know who he had to fear."
The prosecutors' questions for Logan make clear that two Russian emigre brothers named Boris and Michael Vax had at some point visited Logan's house to talk to him about Chalem. Michael Vax, 46, was a key figure in a Georgia-based scheme to defraud the government of $1.6 million in gasoline taxes. In 1995, he and Boris Vax, now 41, pleaded guilty to related conspiracy charges and both served federal prison sentences.
Michael Vax was also charged with second-degree homicide in 1986 in Brooklyn. The Brooklyn District Attorney's office said it has no public records on Vax.
Neither Logan nor Logan's lawyer, Michael Critchley of West Orange, could be reached for comment.
Last Monday, Allen Barry Witz, a Beverly Hills lawyer, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Newark to manipulating the stock of Internet technology company Global Datatel with the help of four unindicted co-conspirators, including Logan. In his divorce filings, Logan stated that Witz loaned him $310,000 to buy his Clifton home.
While Chalem and Lehmann were not named in the Witz indictment, it does refer to Stuart Bockler of Marlboro as an unindicted co-conspirator. At the time of their deaths, Chalem and Lehmann touted Bockler's stock report and "strong buy recommendation" of Global Datatel on a Web site they used to promote that and one other stock.
According to federal prosecutors, the fraud ended in October 1999, the same month Chalem and Lehmann were killed.
Here are selected questions prosecutors wanted to ask Logan before the grand jury:
Who was Logan hiding from inside his bedroom closet?
Who were the "several unknown Russian emigres" who threatened to kill Chalem and Lehmann at a meeting also attended by Logan, Witz and at least one other? How did Chalem and Lehmann react to the threats and did Chalem seek Logan's help in pacifying the Russians?
With whom did Chalem intervene on Logan's behalf regarding a business deal Logan had with several Russians?
Who was Lehmann afraid of, and who did Chalem tell Lehmann he would protect him from?
What was the reason for Logan's "unusual meeting" at Chalem's house the day of the murders?
Who were the Russian investors Chalem was dealing with at the time of the murders?
Why did one person leave the following message on Chalem's answering machine at about the time of the murders: "Call me back - emergency!"
Why did Chalem punch Logan in the face?
Why did the Vax brothers visit Logan's house?
Loughrey said he still wants to know Logan's answers to these questions.
Prosecutors say one reason Chalem punched Logan in the face at Newark International Airport some months before the murders may be because Logan cost the Vax brothers money in a stock deal but blamed the loss on Chalem, Loughrey said.
To avoid testifying to the grand jury Logan invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. In 2001 Judge Lawson affirmed Logan's decision.
"Mr. Logan's testimony may potentially cause federal authorities . . . to proceed on their securities fraud prosecution," Lawson wrote in his opinion after prosecutors asked Lawson to review Logan's claim.
In 2002, Garay wrote to the estranged couple's divorce judge that Logan had been involved in "pump and dump schemes" with Chalem and Lehmann in which they would promote and trade stocks to make them appear to be more valuable then they were. The three would then sell their shares and reap profits based on the inflated stock price, she wrote.
To support her claim that Logan was untrustworthy, Garay submitted Lawson's ruling to the judge, which prompted an objection from Logan's divorce lawyer.
"The consequences of plaintiff's disclosure are not easily measured," wrote Morristown lawyer Edward J. O'Donnell. "She has maligned the defendant's character and has put him at risk."
Logan and Garay married seven weeks before Chalem and Lehmann were killed. The divorce was finalized in 2003.
Logan gained limited notoriety in the late 1990s when he promised, but failed, to save the bankrupt Newark-based Kiwi International Airlines. Logan used two publicly traded companies that he headed to raise money to try to resurrect Kiwi.
James W. Prado Roberts: (732) 643-4223; or jwr@app.com
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