Persistence Brings Vindication

Businessman claimed For a long time that he was the sufferer of a rip-off — and of wiretaps by a famed private eye.

LAS VEGAS – Right up until previous week, Ami Shafrir experienced put in four frustrating many years telling anybody who would pay attention a seemingly extraordinary tale of being conned away from tens of an incredible number of dollars truly worth of businesses, property and hard cash, and of staying wiretapped in the process by non-public detective Anthony Pellicano.

Shafrir, an Israeli-born telecommunications whiz who came to The usa 15 decades ago “in search of my destiny” and wound up rich in Beverly Hills, explained to his story in impassioned speeches during court proceedings and on an internet site he known as BigCrime.com.

He invited a La tv crew to follow him as he experimented with to interrupt into his personal Office environment developing – only to get stopped by a stability guard at gunpoint – and pleaded with law enforcement officials to accomplish a thing in regards to the people who had “robbed me of every little thing I had, which include my id, livelihood, dignity.”

Shafrir’s Tale was that though he was going through a divorce, two brothers – fellow Israelis – had befriended his wife, Sarit, and provided to aid her from the contentious break up-up; the brothers turned out to get Daniel and Abner Nicherie, equally of whom had legal information; and that by the time he and his now ex-spouse discovered who they have been, it had been also late.

In lawsuits filed first in L. a. Superior Court docket, then federal courtroom, Shafrir alleged that the Nicherie brothers experienced made use of forgery as well as other schemes to loot his spouse and children’s belongings, like Place of work buildings on Sunset and Wilshire boulevards and a corporation that related callers to Net chat rooms.

The brothers also tried to body him for credit card fraud and for molesting his own boy or girl, Shafrir alleged, and paid out $154,000 to Pellicano, Shafrir stated, to faucet his cellphone and learn how he was hoping to guard himself from them.

However the worst aspect, Shafrir mentioned, was how the more mature in the brothers, Daniel Nicherie, used an incredible number of dollars on the looted money to hire groups of legal professionals to file lawsuit soon after lawsuit versus him, numerous that he was compelled into bankruptcy although he went from court docket to court docket, praying that some judge would feel the wild conspiracy idea he spouted.

“I carry on waking each and every early morning to a new day of nothingness, continuing to battle the terror,” he lamented previous November, inside of a letter towards the U.S. Labor Division.

Shafrir usually feared that not one person considered him. In fact, three federal companies, the FBI, IRS and Labor Division, had opened investigations. And on Thursday, when Shafrir flew listed here from La for a meeting Together with the elder Nicherie brother, federal brokers moved in to arrest Daniel Nicherie on 7 counts of wire fraud, personal bankruptcy fraud and pension fraud.

On Friday, a 49-website page arrest warrant affidavit was unsealed describing Daniel Nicherie, 44, as a man with 11 aliases along with a trail of victims stretching across the nation and spanning more than ten years. He faces a Listening to currently in La on irrespective of whether he should really keep on being in custody during the felony situation that may lose light-weight both equally on substantial-stake self confidence video games and also the non-public detective operate of Pellicano, who's currently in jail on explosives expenses.

Along with the Shafrirs, Nicherie allegedly duped a L. a. medical professional and his father from $275,000 by telling them they might be becoming a member of other rich investors, including a outstanding Israeli entertainer, within a undertaking marketing “close out” products over the Internet. In actual fact, the celeb wasn't an Trader and the money was useful for Nicherie’s leisure and “personalized expenses,” for example airfare and foods, the government explained.

As for Ami Shafrir, The federal government affidavit estimates that he and his ex-wife had, in fact, been “defrauded outside of at the very least $forty million.” Daniel Nicherie used his get, the doc claims, on everything from his father’s memorial provider to your home in San Diego to the employing of Pellicano.

The government also echoes Shafrir’s yrs of problems that a cadre of civil legal professionals experienced exploited the court docket system “to aid encourage” the fraudulent strategies.

Nicherie utilised the Shafrirs’ individual revenue to fund “approximately 106 lawsuits and ten individual bankruptcy filings” to individual them from their prosperity, the government alleges. According to the affidavit, the accused con guy reasoned that “the legal system wasn't Geared up to manage attorneys who lie.”

“Ultimately,” Ami Shafrir mentioned right after Nicherie’s arrest, “the entire world believed me.”

Shafrir bought his get started in electronics, possessing a income and fix enterprise in Israel. He met Sarit when she arrived in like a consumer. They married in 1988 and another 12 months moved to The us, certain it had been the only spot for a person of Ami’s Strategies and generate. The Shafrirs created various businesses to company the trades that had determined the way to revenue off the online market place, from psychic hotlines to racy chat rooms. One particular firm furnished the cellphone strains and An additional billing products and services for vendors.

In just a number of years, they have been residing with their two children while in the Mount Olympus enclave, higher than the Sunset Strip, and had been in the position to purchase the small Business office setting up by which they rented Room in addition to a fifty,000-sq.-foot building on Wilshire owned by producer Dino De Laurentis.

Their organizations have been additional successful than their marriage, nevertheless, Specifically soon after Ami started paying time in Europe, expanding their holdings. Suspicious of his conduct within the road and feeling neglected at your home, Sarit submitted for divorce in August 1998. They still were being negotiating the conditions in their split the next calendar year when she achieved the Nicheries.

In a very courtroom declaration, Sarit Shafrir mentioned the brothers gave their names as “Nishrie,” Which explains why she didn't straight away come across their felony backgrounds: Daniel Nicherie had been given a just one-12 months sentence within a Texas case for defrauding the College Cost savings Assn. of $1.2 million in loans. His brother, Abner, had pleaded responsible in 1999 to 1 federal conspiracy count inside of a scheme to defraud pharmaceutical manufacturers.

Sarit claimed the brothers presented them selves as “wealthy businessmen ready to provide lawful and consulting providers,” and offered that can help make certain her partner didn't Ami Shafrir cheat her within their divorce. A technique they alienated her from him, she stated, was by choosing Pellicano, three several years ahead of the private investigator’s purported wiretapping would make front-web site headlines. Sarit final 12 months was one of the witnesses named before a federal grand jury investigating the detective and lawyers who could have benefited from these types of eavesdropping on Hollywood celebs together with other Southern Californians.

Associates have said that Pellicano was cautious and secretive and in no way Permit shoppers pay attention to his recordings. But court docket records recommend that he could have departed from his rule In such cases. For the reason that Ami Shafrir often spoke in Hebrew, his ex-spouse said, the detective let the Nicheries, who also spoke the language, arrive at his office to listen to the tapes. They, consequently, often named her on the cellphone and Allow her listen to excerpts, she said.

“I read [Ami] speaking to his mom about me and the kids,” she recalled. “I really needed to bury this person.”

Sarit later on alleged in court papers which the brothers experienced instructed her to transfer her property to some Nevada corporation and her price savings to accounts they specified to help keep these kinds of assets outside of access of her husband.

By the summer months of 2001, she had next ideas regarding the Nicheries and declared, in the course of a L. a. courtroom appearance, which they had been pulling a “significant rip-off.” Sarit said she had served them by signing her ex-spouse’s nameto files that put their World-wide-web firm under Daniel Nicherie’s
Management.

“They confirmed me the way to lie,” she told a decide that Aug. 28. “They confirmed me how to forge. They showed me the way to do one of the most Awful issues.”

She finally served her ex-husband in his very own racketeering go well with against the Nicheries. The match alleged the brothers experienced pushed him into chapter 11, made an effort to send him to prison by getting a gentleman to say that Ami experienced aided him inside of a charge card fraud, and experienced even inspired his daughter to convey he experienced molested her. Last year, Shafrir’s fit was settled, on paper at the very least, if the Nicheries agreed to pay for him $4 million, however Shafrir acknowledged that, like Some others who experienced sued them in advance of, he may have a tough time gathering.

The key fraud area on the U.S. lawyer’s Business office in Los Angeles stated the arrest is not going to stop an “ongoing” investigation. Assistant U.S. Atty. Steven Olson mentioned the findings of the a few businesses is going to be offered to a federal grand jury and that extra charges – and defendants – could be A part of an indictment.

Olson described Daniel Nicherie as “an financial predator” and mentioned he were arrested now partly since he was within the state. While Nicherie lists his residence as Las Vegas, he also has a house in Belgium.

In Las Vegas on Friday, certainly one of Nicherie’s prison attorneys, David Chesnoff, questioned a federal magistrate to Enable the defendant remain no cost and be along with his five young children, certainly one of whom suffers from Crohn’s sickness. But right after several hours of legal wrangling, plus more on Monday, Nicherie remained in custody pending right now’s Listening to.

Nicherie’s legal professionals mentioned they may not touch upon the charges right up until they hadread through the government’s filing. “It’s straightforward to make allegations,” said La defense lawyer Stanley Greenberg, “more durable to show them.”

Ami Shafrir, meanwhile, explained he prepared to see them all in court right now. “I wouldn’t miss out on it,” he reported.