Jesse Ward/Jesse Ward for New York Daily Ne
Howard Leventhal is shown leaving Brooklyn Federal Court on Monday after pleading guilty to stealing millions by getting people to invest in a phony Star Trek-like tricorder that he said would help transmit health care information.
DAMMIT, Jim, I’m a fraudster, not an inventor!
The Illinois con man who claimed he had invented a home health care tablet-style device modeled after the tricorder used by Dr. Leonard McCoy on “Star Trek,” pleaded guilty Monday to the fraudulent scheme.
Federal authorities said the McCoy Home Health Tablet never existed, but that didn’t stop Howard Leventhal from stealing millions of dollars from potential investors.
Leventhal, 57, who bills himself on his LinkedIn profile as an inventor, consultant and product developer who is proficient in five languages, admitted in Brooklyn Federal Court that high school was the highest level of education he completed.
KIRSTY WIGGLESWORTH/AP
Zoe Schoon from Christie’s in London displays a Tricorder Prop from the Star Trek television series.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Winston Paes said the government now believes the scheme was much larger than the $ 800,000 theft from a Florida financial group that was outlined in the original complaint, and pegged the loss to investors at more than $ 20 million.
Leventhal even claimed the Canadian government was on board with the phony device, forging the signature of a government official in his bogus pitch.
Leventhal claimed the electronic tablet could instantly retrieve patient data to doctors and health care providers. In the famous TV show, actor DeForrest Kelley used an electronic device to scan gravely ill patients and then scold an impatient Capt. James Kirk, “I’m a doctor, not a magician.”
Leventhal, of Illinois, appears to be as emotionally high-strung as the TV character, as well.
CBS Photo Archive/CBS via Getty Images
DeForest Kelley as Dr. Leonard H. McCoy in “Star Trek.”
“I’m seeing a doctor of psychology for stress,” he told Judge Brian Cogan. “When I got to the hotel at midnight I had a single glass of Scotch.”
Asked outside court if he was a “Trekkie” himself, Leventhal remained silent. “If he answers, I’ll fire him,” said defense lawyer Richard Greenberg.
Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch revealed in a statement that she may be a fan of the famous TV show.
“In Leventhal’s world, the truth was cloaked by his web of lies and impersonation,” said Lynch. “His actions were the stuff of fantasy and science-fiction, valid only in another dimension.”
The feds have estimated that Leventhal faces more than nine years in prison, but it could be much less if the judge rules the theft was limited to just $ 2.5 to $ 7 million, as the defense argued, as opposed to the $ 20 million figure quoted by the prosecution.
jmarzulli@nydailynews.com
http://newyork.greatlocalnews.info/?p=19485
via Great Local News: New York http://newyork.greatlocalnews.info
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