A con artist robs a Florida mansion and threatens its actual owners
A Tampa man has been sentenced to 17 years in prison for defrauding a charity that faked the purchase of a Florida mansion — and then threatened to kill the real owners to keep them quiet.
TAMPA, FL – According to court documents, Alexander Leszczynski created a fake charity and then used that charity to create a fake surety deed to transfer property in Redington Shores, Florida, in October 2020.
The actual property owners discovered the crime and then sued Leszczynski to correct the deed. But during the proceedings, Leszczynski sent a series of harassing letters, emails and faxes to the victims and the attorney representing them in the lawsuit.
U.S. District Judge James S. Moody Jr., of the Middle District of Florida, sentenced Leszczynski to 17 years and six months in federal prison on charges of murder for hire and obstruction of justice. Moody ordered Leszczynski to serve consecutively the 17 years and 6 months sentence he received in a related fraud case.
Leszczynski was charged with the April 2022 fraud, several other frauds, as well as multiple counts of money laundering in United States v. Alexander Leszczynski, 8:22-cr-155-MSS-SPF. He was arraigned on May 17, 2022 and ordered detained.
However, while in the Pinellas County Jail, the FBI discovered that Leszczynski was looking for a hitman to kill the couple who owned the Redington Shores home, saying he had $45,000, hidden in his home, available to pay someone to kill the victims. Leszczynski told the confidential informant that he would be able to obtain the victims’ property if they died, and that the pending criminal fraud case should be dropped.
The confidential informant agreed to put Leszczynski in touch with an alleged hitman, who was actually an undercover agent. In his conversations with the “hitman,” Leszczynski described the legal owners of the property, negotiated a murder price of $30,000, and repeatedly asserted that he wanted to kill the homeowners.
In November 2022, Leszczynski pleaded guilty to both cases. He later withdrew his guilty plea in the murder-for-hire case, but pleaded guilty again in June 2023. After pleading guilty to both cases, Leszczynski wrote a number of letters – which were intercepted by the United States – in an attempt to lure others and threaten to kill them. He fraudulently comes forward and takes responsibility for his crimes.
The fraud case was investigated by the FBI, Largo Police Department, Indian Shores Police Department, and Palm Beach Police Department. He was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Rachel Jones. The murder-for-hire case was investigated by the FBI and the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office.
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