Norfolk, VA – The financial pressure on Joseph Shereshevsky, a Norfolk businessman awaiting trial on federal charges of securities fraud, appears to be building.
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Shereshevsky, the part-owner and former chief operating officer of investment company WexTrust Capital, and his family stand to lose their $1 million Norfolk home through foreclosure. The home, in the 700 block of Maury Avenue in Ghent, has been advertised for sale at auction on Jan. 20.
A $650,000 note for the home and a deed of trust were signed by Shereshevsky’s wife, Elka, in August 2005. The loan, made by Wachovia Mortgage Corp., currently is held by Residential Funding Co., according to court records. Elka Shereshevsky paid $1.03 million for the house, which the city assessed at $1.05 million in July.
Joseph Shereshevsky, 52, was arrested in August on a federal charge of securities fraud in federal court in Manhattan. In a separate action filed the same day, the Securities and Exchange Commission contended that he, along with WexTrust chairman and majority owner Steven Byers and their company, bilked investors by shifting $100 million to unauthorized uses.
At the SEC’s request, the court ordered that the defendants’ assets be frozen and appointed a receiver to protect the assets. The freeze was later extended to Elka Shereshevsky’s assets after the receiver cited evidence that her husband routinely put WexTrust assets into real estate and bank accounts bearing his wife’s name.
When Wachovia Corp. froze several WexTrust bank accounts in August, Shereshevsky directed his wife to open an account at BB&T and diverted assets, including assets of WexTrust investment entities, to the new account, the receiver said in a filing.
Other accounts in his wife’s name contained more than $825,000 of assets belonging to either Shereshevsky or WexTrust, the receiver said.
Separately, the lead attorney representing Shereshevsky in his civil and criminal cases is seeking court approval to withdraw. John Meringolo of New York City told the court in a Dec. 29 filing that he was taking the action because of “Mr. Shereshevsky’s current inability to pay for his defense and his continued failure to follow my instructions.”
Meringolo said he notified Shereshevsky of his request. Shereshevsky, who hasn’t been able to meet the court’s bail requirements, is being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
Martin J. Siegel, another attorney representing Shereshevsky, said yesterday that he had asked the court for permission to withdraw from the case “for a lot of reasons” but declined to elaborate. A hearing last week on the attorneys’ requests has been carried over to Thursday, Siegel said.
This is the tale of “Norfolk Joe”;
The WexTrust Maven who made money flow;
But Uncle Sam is a serious cop;
He’ll freeze all your assets and just won’t stop;
But Norforlk Joe one big mistake made;
He forgot that in the end the lawyers must get paid!
aich noflu hagiboirim.
what a story.
If the govt froze all his assets, where do they expect him to pay his bills from?
On the chance he gets found not guilty, will the govt buy him back his home?
As an aside, what he allegedly has done, is no different than what Citibank did, and admitted in public fillings, yet they get a bailout while others get arrested.
authentic moron:
if not guilty, i’ll buy him back his home. i think im safe.
“sof ganev l’tliah”
uncommon to bloggers is the use of brains, books can be written about scammers and books can be written about acused scammers… the gov. often times accuses and the defendant can go bust and broke have his life ruined like gaza in order to defend his/her self. they make you plea so you dont get guilty at trial on some dumb thing that is commonly done by all. and you the victim are done for life. picking up pieces.
those who vigorously defend themselves are often acquitted ( look at jewish detroit spy case, the guys who fought spitzer and guilanni)
if anyone would have a clue what went on in the giant financial firms ( read liars poker) there would be riots and lynchings.
the facts remain we seem to think people are evil and can harm and corporations are governed and controlled with oversight. wake upthey are worse then anyone individual you can name or think of.
as far as this individual is concerned unless you know the facts ( which none of our commentors knows) best advice would be to shut up. and think if it were me what would i want s/o to be saying about the case.
Answer to #3 and #5 ;
Funny what perspective will do to a “scandal”
When Yossi was arrested in August, no one knew that most of the big financial institutions were doing similar things. No one knew that $100,000,000 would be a small number next to another, bigger ponzi scheme.
What about any non-wextrust assets that his wife had? She must have had some money before they were married Does she stand to lose those as well?
his wife is not living in this house anymore- she ‘downsized’ to one of the other houses he owned in norfolk.
To Anonymous 11:08.
We feel you are trying to make a point but somehow the message got lost in translation. Please restate your point once you’re off your meds. Are you saying the missing $100 mil is a Govt. conspiracy? Or maybe you’re saying the Govt. should slap his hand with a mere warning because losing a trivial $100 mil is nothing compared to the $9 tril the economy shed because of the mortgage meltdown?
P.S. The reason they invented punctuation is to avoid run-on sentences with no pauses, breaks and lack of Subject/Verb agreement.
P.P.S. One does not “get guilty” at trial. One is “found guilty” by a perponderance of evidence presented to a jury of one’s peers.
reply to 10 and 11
#10 i find it hard to believe you are saying truth. you may know s/o etc… who lost $.however those folk arent on this board theyre with attorneys who advise them. and one thing they dont advise clients to do is blog away the case or its details, for obvious reasons.
to 11- your comments are lacking substance. crimminal activity is never allowed. penalties are meant to correct a wrong and deter others from same. as far as my point regarding equality in punishment, the standard should be the same no matter if the crime is done by an individual within a small (subject) or large ( GS, Citi or any other large )corporation.
If the govt froze all his assets, where do they expect him to pay his bills from?
On the chance he gets found not guilty, will the govt buy him back his home?
As an aside, what he allegedly has done, is no different than what Citibank did, and admitted in public fillings, yet they get a bailout while others get arrested.