Queens Man Defrauds “Girlfriends” of More Than $40K

Rice: Weinberg stole thousands from three women he met on Internet dating sites

MINEOLA, NY - Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice announced today that a Queens man already on parole for Medicaid fraud has been charged with stealing $41,000 from three women he was dating after promising them large returns on investments they made with him. The arrest is the result of a joint investigation between the District Attorney’s Office and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Jay Weinberg, 57, of Flushing is charged with Grand Larceny in the Third Degree and Scheme to Defraud in the First Degree. He faces up to seven years in prison if convicted and is due back in court August 14.

Rice said that from February 2008 to May 2009, Weinberg met the women on Internet dating sites such as Facebook.com and JDate.com. He pursued romantic relationships with them, and then convinced them to invest in his phony Valley Stream-based investment company, Kensington Orientals, by promising returns of up to 85%. One victim gave Weinberg $25,000, while two others gave him $10,000 and $6,000. In all three cases the money was never invested and was instead deposited into Weinberg’s personal and business accounts.

Weinberg is currently on parole for a 1988 Medicaid fraud conviction. He served more than five years in prison for billing Medicaid for $16 million in services that were never provided at the Brooklyn medical clinic he ran with his father.

“This con-man pulled on the heart strings and preyed on the wallets of these women,” Rice said. “He will now find out that the Nassau County criminal justice system is much harder to deceive. I want to thank the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission for their assistance in this case.”

Handling the case for the DA’s office is Chief Robert Emmons of the DA’s Government & Consumer Frauds Bureau. The defendant is represented by the Legal Aid Society of Nassau County. 

The charges are merely accusations and the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.