Persistence Delivers Vindication

Businessman claimed For a long time that he was the target of a scam — and of wiretaps by a famed non-public eye.

LAS VEGAS – Until past 7 days, Ami Shafrir had used four aggravating several years telling anyone who would hear a seemingly amazing tale of becoming conned outside of tens of a lot of dollars truly worth of businesses, property and hard cash, and of staying wiretapped in the process by private detective Anthony Pellicano.

Shafrir, an Israeli-born telecommunications whiz who came to America 15 decades ago “trying to find my Future” and wound up full of Beverly Hills, advised his Tale in impassioned speeches all through court proceedings and on an internet site he called BigCrime.com.

He invited a La tv crew to abide by him as he attempted to interrupt into his own Business office setting up – only for being stopped by a protection guard at gunpoint – and pleaded with regulation enforcement officers to do anything concerning the folks who experienced “robbed me of everything I'd, such as my identification, livelihood, dignity.”

Shafrir’s story was that although he was undergoing a divorce, two brothers – fellow Israelis – experienced befriended his wife, Sarit, and presented that can help her in the contentious break up-up; which the brothers turned out being Daniel and Abner Nicherie, both of those of whom experienced felony data; and that by the time he and his now ex-spouse learned who they ended up, it had been way too late.

In lawsuits filed initial in Los Angeles Superior Court docket, then federal courtroom, Shafrir alleged the Nicherie brothers had made use of forgery as well as other schemes to loot his family’s belongings, which include Business office buildings on Sunset and Wilshire boulevards and a company that linked callers to World wide web chat rooms.

The brothers also attempted to frame him for charge card fraud and for molesting his very own kid, Shafrir alleged, and compensated $154,000 to Pellicano, Shafrir explained, to tap his cell phone and learn how he was seeking to guard himself against them.

Although the worst element, Shafrir reported, was how the older of your brothers, Daniel Nicherie, put in millions of bucks of your looted income to rent teams of attorneys to file lawsuit just after lawsuit towards him, lots of that he was forced out of business when he went from court to courtroom, praying that some decide would consider the wild conspiracy theory he spouted.

“I continue waking just about every early morning to a brand new day of nothingness, continuing to fight the terror,” he lamented very last November, in a letter for the U.S. Labor Section.

Shafrir normally feared that no one believed him. In reality, 3 federal businesses, the FBI, IRS and Labor Section, experienced opened investigations. And on Thursday, when Shafrir flew below from La for a gathering Along with the elder Nicherie brother, federal brokers moved in to arrest Daniel Nicherie on seven counts of wire fraud, personal bankruptcy fraud and pension fraud.

On Friday, a 49-webpage arrest warrant affidavit was unsealed describing Daniel Nicherie, 44, as a man with eleven aliases in addition to a path of victims stretching across the nation and spanning a lot more than a decade. He faces a hearing these days in L. a. on whether he ought to remain in custody in the prison scenario that can drop light both on superior-stake assurance online games as well as the private detective do the job of Pellicano, that is presently in jail on explosives expenses.

Along with the Shafrirs, Nicherie allegedly duped a L. a. medical doctor and his father out of $275,000 by telling them they'd be joining other rich buyers, like a notable Israeli entertainer, inside of a enterprise advertising “near out” items on the internet. The truth is, the movie star was not an investor and The cash was used for Nicherie’s enjoyment and “own expenditures,” which include airfare and meals, the government claimed.

As for Ami Shafrir, the 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 document claims, on all the things from his father’s memorial services into a home in San Diego into the hiring of Pellicano.

The government also echoes Shafrir’s many years of grievances that a cadre of civil attorneys had exploited the courtroom technique “that can help endorse” the fraudulent techniques.

Nicherie applied the Shafrirs’ have money to fund “approximately 106 lawsuits and ten individual bankruptcy filings” to different them from their prosperity, the government alleges. According to the affidavit, the accused con man reasoned that “the lawful procedure wasn't Outfitted to cope with attorneys who lie.”

“Finally,” Ami Shafrir reported just after Nicherie’s arrest, “the whole world thought me.”

Shafrir acquired his commence in electronics, owning a gross sales and repair service small business in Israel. He satisfied Sarit when she arrived in for a client. They married in 1988 and the next calendar year moved to The us, convinced it had been the only spot for a man of Ami’s Strategies and generate. The Shafrirs established many businesses to company the trades that had determined the best way to gain off the online world, from psychic hotlines to racy chat rooms. A single business offered the cellular phone lines and A different billing solutions for suppliers.

Inside of a couple of years, they ended up dwelling with their two kids from the Mount Olympus enclave, above the Sunset Strip, and had been in the position to purchase the small Place of work making in which they rented Area plus a fifty,000-square-foot constructing on Wilshire owned by producer Dino De Laurentis.

Their enterprises were much more productive than their marriage, nonetheless, Specially after Ami commenced spending time in Europe, growing their holdings. Suspicious of his perform to the street and experience neglected in your own home, Sarit filed for divorce in August 1998. They nevertheless had been negotiating the conditions in their split the next calendar year when she fulfilled the Nicheries.

In the courtroom declaration, Sarit Shafrir stated the brothers gave their names as “Nishrie,” which is why she didn't quickly locate their criminal backgrounds: Daniel Nicherie experienced acquired a 1-calendar year sentence in a very Texas situation for defrauding the College Discounts Assn. of $1.two million in loans. His brother, Abner, experienced pleaded responsible in 1999 to 1 federal conspiracy depend in a very scheme to defraud pharmaceutical brands.

Sarit explained the brothers presented by themselves as “rich businessmen capable to deliver authorized and consulting products and services,” and presented to assist ensure that her husband did not cheat her inside their divorce. A technique they alienated her from him, she mentioned, was by using the services of Pellicano, three several years ahead of the private investigator’s purported wiretapping would make front-site headlines. Sarit last yr was on the list of witnesses known as ahead of a federal grand jury investigating the detective and legal professionals who may have benefited from these kinds of eavesdropping on Hollywood famous people as well as other Southern Californians.

Associates have explained that Pellicano was careful and secretive and under no circumstances Enable clients listen to his recordings. But court records recommend that he could have departed from his rule In such cases. For the reason that Ami Shafrir often Ami Shafrir spoke in Hebrew, his ex-spouse reported, the detective Permit the Nicheries, who also spoke the language, come to his Business office to hear the tapes. They, in turn, occasionally referred to as her on a cellphone and let her pay attention to excerpts, she reported.

“I listened to [Ami] speaking with his mother about me and the youngsters,” she recalled. “I actually wished to bury this guy.”

Sarit later alleged in court docket papers the brothers had instructed her to transfer her dwelling to your Nevada corporation and her financial savings to accounts they specified to maintain these types of property out of arrive at of her spouse.

Through the summer of 2001, she experienced second views in regards to the Nicheries and declared, in the course of a L. a. court appearance, they were pulling a “major scam.” Sarit claimed she had aided them by signing her ex-partner’s nameto paperwork that set their Web enterprise below Daniel Nicherie’s
Command.

“They showed me tips on how to lie,” she informed a decide that Aug. 28. “They confirmed me how you can forge. They showed me ways 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 fit alleged the brothers had driven him out of business, attempted to mail him to jail by acquiring a man to claim that Ami had helped him within a bank card fraud, and had even encouraged his daughter to mention he had molested her. Final yr, Shafrir’s match was settled, on paper no less than, in the event 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 hard time gathering.

The main fraud segment from the U.S. attorney’s office in L. a. reported the arrest will not close an “ongoing” investigation. Assistant U.S. Atty. Steven Olson reported the results in the three organizations might be offered to a federal grand jury Which added costs – and defendants – might be A part of an indictment.

Olson described Daniel Nicherie as “an financial predator” and mentioned he were arrested now partly simply because he was in the place. Though Nicherie lists his home as Las Vegas, he also has a home in Belgium.

In Las Vegas on Friday, amongst Nicherie’s legal legal professionals, David Chesnoff, requested a federal Justice of the peace to let the defendant keep totally free and become with his five small children, among whom suffers from Crohn’s disease. But soon after several hours of legal wrangling, plus much more on Monday, Nicherie remained in custody pending these days’s hearing.

Nicherie’s legal professionals stated they might not touch upon the fees till they hadread by The federal government’s filing. “It’s simple to make allegations,” explained L. a. protection legal professional Stanley Greenberg, “tougher to confirm them.”

Ami Shafrir, In the meantime, reported he prepared to determine them all in courtroom nowadays. “I wouldn’t pass up it,” he said.