I’m not sure that it would be wise these days for Robert Alexander to be caught throwing his money around in Las Vegas Strip casinos, but I am convinced the luck would be in his favor if he did.
Alexander, known as guy who used millions in investment capital in his online-gaming company, Kizzang, LLC, to fund a high-rolling lifestyle that included blowing a pile of money at Las Vegas casinos, has once again seen his sentencing on securities and wire fraud delayed by a federal judge in New York due to his poor health. Me thinks he’s allergic to prison.
By my count, it’s at least the third delay in his sentencing by U.S. District Judge Andrew Carter Jr. in New York’s Southern District. His next dice roll of destiny is set for November 29, 2023, but Carter has already acknowledged that he’s amenable to pushing the sentencing to November 2024.
Did I mention he pleaded guilty in January 2020 to bilking 53 Kizzang investors out of at least $9 million?
As tough-talking U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman described it, “Alexander betrayed his investors and spent their funds to support his lifestyle, including gambling excursions to multiple casinos and a luxury car for one of his family members. Robert Alexander now faces serious time in prison for gaming his investors.”
Uh, no he doesn’t. At least, not yet. And at this rate, maybe never. If the guy is still too ill to travel, so ill that the judge appeared to waste little court time questioning yet another sentencing delay in the case, then maybe someone should stop pretending and let him serve his time at home. Or just send him a get-well card and call it a day.
At the time the SEC put Kizzang on the shelf next to so many other internet companies that turned out to be new-age investor scams, the federal securities police concluded that “Alexander used Kizzang bank accounts as his personal piggy bank, misappropriating at least $1.3 million to pay for, among other things, his daily living expenses, his daughter’s culinary-school tuition, his mortgage and car payments, and his gambling habits.”
Tough talk, no action. Thanks for playing.
That last part, about his “gambling habits,” has intrigued me in recent months. Alexander’s familiarity with Strip casinos, including his play at Resorts World Las Vegas, became a head-scratching news story following his conviction. Alexander’s attorney and business intimate, David Chesnoff, and others have vouched for their man’s character and apparent ill health, but they’d be hard pressed to credibly explain why he was allowed to gamble after he pleaded guilty to fraud related to gambling with investor funds.
Alexander’s top-flight defense attorney in New York, Brian Jacobs. received a quick approval to push his client’s sentencing hearing from Aug. 9 to just after Thanksgiving. In his July 7 letter to Judge Carter, Jacobs reminded the court that Alexander’s two previous delay requests were related to “serious eye surgery, including a cornea transplant, and his doctors indicated that Mr. Alexander needed six additional months to recover before he would be able to travel to Court without risking possible risks to the transplant.”
It turns out the desperately needed transplant was delayed once, then again. And now a third time.
With all that said, it’s also obvious Robert Alexander is nowhere near the biggest scammer to ever throw investor funds across Strip gaming tables. Countless millions that investors believed they were risking in stock, land deals, amazing medical breakthroughs, gourmet chocolates, and, yes, internet-gaming platforms have flowed from fraudsters to casino coffers over the years.
If the guy is too sick to serve a simple sentence, then maybe it’s time to drop the charade, put him on an ankle monitor, and stop wasting taxpayer dollars. Because what’s taking place looks more like a paper shuffle than the dispensing of justice.
And a wise man once said that justice delayed is, well, you know the rest.
