Florida man who manufactured fake Trump pardon will serve 35 years in prison for fraud, murder-for-hire
A Florida con man who once manufactured a fake federal pardon allegedly signed by Donald Trump will reportedly serve more than three decades in prison for a slew of crimes — including fraud and murder-for-hire.
Alexander Leszczynski, 25, of North Redington Beach, tried to steal millions through a cornucopia of fraudulent schemes — then wanted to hire a hitman to kill two government witnesses against him, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
When the government caught on and seized $337,000 from one of his accounts, the sneaky fraudster concocted another harebrained plot: Claim Donald Trump let him off the hook.
“When he discovered that the money had been frozen, he attempted to have it released by producing a fabricated pardon purportedly signed by former President Donald Trump,” the US Attorney’s Office said after his arrest.
The feds didn’t buy it.
In April 2022, he was charged with wire fraud, bank fraud and money laundering for using fake charities to get two Payroll Protection Plan loans worth nearly $200,000, the Tampa Bay Times said.
He was also involved in a “check kiting” scheme, and tried to deposit $2.7 million in worthless checks into an account for one of his fake charities, the outlet said.
The slippery thief also tried to deed himself properties around the country that, taken together, were worth more than $300 million, according to the newspaper.
When the real owners tried to fix the fake deeds, Leszczynski harassed them with threatening letters, emails and faxes.
He was indicted again in October 2022 for trying to hire a hitman for $45,000 to take out a pair of government witnesses — he was convinced that without them, the government’s fraud case would fall apart, federal authorities said.
It didn’t work out. Leszczynski didn’t know he’d been asking a confidential informant to hook him up with a killer — and the informant put him in touch with an undercover agent who played the part until the feds could collar him again.
That’s when they charged him with murder-for-hire and obstruction of justice, the newspaper said.
He was sentenced to more than 17 years for the fraud charges he pleaded guilty to last November.
On Monday, he was given another 17 years and six months for the murder-for-hire case, which he pleaded guilty to in June.
Leszczynski will serve the sentences — which stack up to just over 35 years — consecutively, according to the paper.
But his escapades have not ended, even though he now sits behind bars.
Since his guilty pleas, Leszczynski has written several letters in which he asks and threatens people to come forward and take responsibility for his misdeeds, federal prosecutors said in a Monday press release.