Not a Vulture Investor, a Predator

Want to own a beautiful, old apartment in Prague? Don't give your money to Lawrence Eric Leins.

The once respected Florida businessman has been sentenced to 57 months in jail by a federal judge in Jacksonville, Florida, for bilking investors out of $1.9 million.

It seems that Leins was selling apartments in the beautiful Czech capital without bothering to actually buy any first -- or to acquire the necessary license to operate there.

All those beautiful homes featured in his lavishly illustrated sales materials? They were actually owned by the city of Prague.

But wait. There's more. Among the people Leins recruited to invest in his Czech Republic Property Fund were Florida Circuit Court Judge Robert LeBlanc -- and Leins' own mother.

"I believed sincerely that this was a solid business plan," Leins' mom, Phyllis Wirtz, told the Florida Times Union. She invested $25,000 and even got some of her friends to invest.

Leins, who once won executive of the year as director of operations for the Arena Football League team the Orlando Predators, used money from victims to support his lavish lifestyle, prosecutors said.

After filing for bankruptcy in 2006, prosecutors said that Leins used money from investors to buy a $1.2 million house in the beachfront, golf course community The Plantation in Ponte Verde, Florida, as well as two luxury cars and a 32-foot powerboat.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Tysen Duva summed up Leins as "someone who, whatever way you cut it, stole other people's money to buy stuff."

His mother has asked the state for help in recovering the $15,000 she lent her son to buy himself a Mercedes.

Leins, who promised investors an 11 percent return per $50,000 unit of his ownership fund, was indicted on 10 counts back in March. U.S. District Judge Henry Adams seized all of Leins' property for restitution and has ordered him to pay back the $1.9 million and sentenced him to 57 months in prison.

There's still conflict over Leins' home. Duped investor Chaim Gross of New York claims the home should be his since paperwork proves Leins used his money to buy it. Federal prosecutors want to sell it in order to pay back all victims in the case prayed on by Leins.

by Andrea Chalupa