Sheldon Silver Son-in-Law Charged in $7M Ponzi Scheme
The son-in-law of ex-New York state Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver has been charged with running a $7 million Ponzi scam. Image by getty images
The son-in-law of former New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver was arrested for allegedly running a $7 million Ponzi scheme.
Marcello Trebitsch, 37, was arrested on Monday by federal agents and indicted in Manhattan federal court on charges of wire fraud and securities fraud. He was released on $500,000 bail. Trebitsch, who is married to Silver’s daughter Michelle, could face up to 40 years in jail and $5.25 million in fines.
In the five-year scheme, which collapsed in December, Trebitsch allegedly promised up to 16 percent returns with very minimal risk for the investors who put their money in low cap stocks. He allegedly invested only a portion of the money and used the rest for personal benefit and to repay other investors, the complaint said.
Michelle Trebitsch, a certified public accountant, was a co-owner and managing partner of the investment fund, Allese Capital, The New York Times reported, citing the complaint. She has not been charged.
Silver resigned in January after being arrested in an anti-corruption investigation.
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
