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Illegal alien from Wayne gets prison in repair scam
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
ASSOCIATED PRESS


NEW YORK -- A Wayne man who is an illegal immigrant from Israel was sentenced Tuesday to two to six years in prison for stealing nearly $270,000 from clients by accepting money to renovate their homes and then doing little or none of the work.

Danny Aldin was sentenced on his guilty plea to second-degree grand larceny and first-degree scheme to defraud. He had faced up to 15 years in prison if convicted after trial.

Aldin also signed 13 confessions of judgment -- admissions that he owes specific sums to 13 people whose money he accepted without then doing the agreed upon work. A 14th person, owed $243, refused to demand reimbursement.

Aldin, 45, sobbed loudly and openly while apologizing for his crimes.

"I'm sorry for what I did," the defendant said in heavily accented English as he wiped his eyes with his fingers. "I've lost my home, my family. I've lost everything."

State Supreme Court Justice Renee White said she heard Aldin expressing "sorrow for your predicament" but no remorse for his victims. The judge said some people paid Aldin up to $50,000 to renovate their apartments and he left their dwellings in shambles.

She said the money judgments against Aldin required that if he ever got any money it would be taken to pay the residential and commercial contracting customers his businesses, ALDM/LDM and Murray Hill Contracting, defrauded from 2001 through 2004.

Aldin's lawyer, Zamir Iosepovic, said his client entered the country in the early 1990s. He said he advised Aldin that he could apply for early parole specifically to be deported after he serves half the minimum sentence, one year, in prison.