Brooklyn scammer who named his fake company ‘Vandelay,' like the ‘Seinfeld' joke, gets nearly 4 years in prison
A Brooklyn man who borrowed a running gag from 'Seinfeld' by inventing a company named Vandelay to scam investors wasn't laughing when a judge on Wednesday sentenced him to time behind bars.
Thomas Sfraga, 56, who gained some internet fame as a crypto guru named 'T.J. Stone,' was sentenced to three years and nine months in prison in Brooklyn Federal Court Thursday for defrauding 14 investors out of $1.5 million.
He ran a variety of schemes from 2019 to 2022 including taking their money to renovate their homes, telling them he was buying houses to flip and sell for profit, offering to buy them into a major construction contract, and getting them to invest in a cryptocurrency 'virtual wallet' with their cash.
Sfraga was instead lining his pockets and using some of money from later investors to pay his earlier victims. The feds stay he may have stolen closer to $2 million, since three more victims came forward after his May guilty plea to a wire fraud charge.
As part of the scheme, Sfraga held himself out as the owner of several businesses, including Vandelay Construction Corp. and Build Strong Homes.
In the Seinfeld episode 'The Boyfriend,' George Costanza pretended he interviewed with a fake latex company named 'Vandelay Industries' so he could keep getting unemployment benefits.
Throughout the series, Costanza would present himself as a fake architect named 'Art Vandelay,' and in the show's 1998 finale, a judge named 'Arthur Vandelay' sentenced the four main characters to a year behind bars for refusing to stop a mugging.
Sfraga stole from a wide assortment of victims that came into his life — he targeted friends and next-door neighbors, the parents of children that played on his child's sports teams, his child's baseball coach, grade school acquaintances, people he met at crypto events, and a newlywed couple looking to invest some of the money they'd gotten as gifts, according to federal prosecutors.
'Remember me, Tommy? Yeah,' said one victim in court. 'We were next-door neighbors. Next-door neighbors, literally next door… We would barbecue together. I'd watch his kids play soccer. He was at my son's wedding.'
His victims took cash from their life savings, home renovation funds and children's tuition funds to invest in him.
'I just think that this guy's rotten to the core,' said Michael Mindell, 61, of Manhattan, one of Sfarga's crypto victims.
Another victim who spoke in court, said he and his wife gave him the $100,000 they got as a wedding gift, which was money they planned to use on a new home.
'Losing this money has not only affected my finances, but has caused a strain on my marriage,' he said. 'My wife and I are living in a basement apartment with our 2-year-old son … Due to constant worries about our living situation, we are unable to consider expanding our family right now, because we financially cannot.'
When his victims figured out what he was up to, he skipped town and moved to Arizona under a false name.
When authorities arrested him in Arizona in September 2023, he skipped out on his $3,600 bail and fled again, but was busted that December in Nevada after running out on his bill at the Wynn Casino.
Assistant U.S. Attorney John Vagelatos asked for 41 to 51 months, based on federal guidelines, arguing in court filings a lesser sentence 'would amount to a slap on the wrist and send the message that white collar criminals bear minimal personal and financial consequences if they are caught, and that the court and the government doesn't care if over a dozen working-class New Yorkers were scammed.'
Sfarga, who's already spent about 14 months of his sentence in jail at MDC Brooklyn, cut an apologetic figure in court Thursday, saying that will spend 'every waking moment of my existence on redemption.'
'I'm sorry for weaponizing the trust and the faith that was bestowed upon me,' he said. 'I'm sorry for turning a group of friends that I love so dearly into a list of victims that despise me so deeply.'
Sfarga's lawyer, Samuel Jacobson of the Federal Defenders, said Sfarza plans to go back into the construction business to pay off the roughly $1.5 million in restitution he owes, drawing laughs from victims in the courtroom.
Judge Frederic Block countered, 'It's a grim reality here that these victims are never going to be repaid.'
Block said he was considering a sentence above the 41 to 51 month federal guidelines, but settled on 45 months because of the notoriously dire conditions at MDC Brooklyn.
'There's just no excuse for this whatsoever and you know that,' he said of Sfarga's crimes. 'I'm giving you a bit of a break because of the MDC conditions.'
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