Richard Zeitlin

RICHARD ZEITLIN and ROBERT PIARO were arrested in August 2023 and charged in connection with their schemes to defraud donors while soliciting money for certain political action committees (“PACs”). ZEITLIN was additionally charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice and obstruction of justice. ZEITLIN was arrested in Las Vegas, Nevada, and is expected to be presented in federal court in Nevada From at least in or about 2017 up to and including in or about 2020, ZEITLIN used his telemarketing call center business and various associated entities to defraud numerous donors by providing misleading and false information about how the donors’ money would be spent and the nature of the organizations to which they were giving. Specifically, ZEITLIN directed his employees to alter the call scripts used when calling potential donors on behalf of certain PACs in order to mislead potential donors into believing that they would be giving to a direct-services organization (i.e., a charity), rather than to a political advocacy organization (i.e., a PAC). Among other things, when one PAC treasurer confronted ZEITLIN with complaints from donors that solicitation calls falsely represented a PAC as a charity, ZEITLIN falsely denied that the calls were being made, acknowledged that such calls would be inappropriate, and refused to give the treasurer any call recordings that would have revealed his fraud. ZEITLIN directed that these lies, misleading statements, and misrepresentations be made so that donors would be more likely to give money, thereby increasing the funds raised and profits for his businesses – which typically received approximately 90% of the funds donated. In or about May 2022, after learning that ZEITLIN and his businesses were under federal investigation, ZEITLIN directed his employees to delete electronic messages relating to his businesses. ZEITLIN, 53, of Las Vegas, Nevada, was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with telemarketing and one count of wire fraud in connection with telemarketing, which each carry a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison, and one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice and one count of obstruction of justice, which each carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. He was sentenced to 121 months in prison in December 2024. In addition to the prison sentence, ZEITLIN, 54, of Las Vegas, Nevada, was sentenced to five years of supervised release and was ordered to pay forfeiture in the amount of $8,906,760.00, which represents ZEITLIN’s proceeds from the crime, and restitution in the amount of $8,906,760.00.