Attorney Robert Wisnicki, AKA “Dovi” from Woodmere, Long Island, was recently sentenced to 78 months in Federal prison after pleading guilty to operating a Ponzi real estate investment scheme. His release dat is 2029. He also laundered money for a $50 million ambulance chasing crime ring the Feds referred to as the “Gulkarov Organization.” The Gulkarov Organization scammed insurance companies out of no fault insurance payments in auto accident cases by getting kickbacks from medical and therapy practices that billed insurance companies for unnecessary treatment.

Before relocating to Otisville Federal Prison, Attorney Dovi Wisnicki lived a comfortable life in the Five Towns with his wife and children in a home he valued at close to two million dollars on a Chapter 7 bankruptcy petition he filed earlier this year. On his bankruptcy petition Dovi listed his income at $240K in the year 2021. In January of 2022 he got indicted. In 2022 his income dropped to $34K. He is now earning about ten cents an hour working at a prison job in Otisville.

Dovi listed on his bankruptcy petition that he owed millions of dollars to the Zweig Law firm with offices out of Cedarhurst and Lakewood, NJ. Its possible that the Zweig Law firm represents a number of Dovi’s victims. Wisnicki listed that he owes Daniel Wisnicki, his brother, of Los Angeles $400,000.00. Dovi owes his parents $3 million and owes Rabbi Kaufman of the Waterbury Yeshiva $100K. Its not clear from the court filings what the $3 million loan from Dovi’s parents covered.

Dovi claims that he owns $6.7 million in assets, which includes monies owed to him from the following individuals:

Ari Assouline — Loan $680,000.00
Edon Arabov — Loan $96,000.00
Eli Harel and Roi Yosef – loan $125,000.00
Mayer Hazan & Avimor Piha — loan $300,000.00
Michael Pinter — Loan $365,000.00
Paul Errio — loan $750,000.00
PB — Loan $792,000.00
Roody Cambrone — Loan $350,000.00
Sam Batra and Gil Broitman — Loan $3,000,000.00
Sayed — Loan $250,000.00

Dovi Wisnicki was the founding attorney of the New York-based law firms Wisnicki and Associates LLP and Wisnicki Neuhauser LLP, which were operated out of an office in Forest Hills, Queens. After Wisnicki was served with a Federal criminal subpoena to produce records, Wisnicki submitted false documents to the Federal grand jury, lied to the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, and committing perjury before the grand jury. The Wisnicki law firms have recently filed chapter 7 bankruptcy petitions.

Dovi Wisnicki robbed numerous victims of about $18 million in total in his Ponzi real estate investment scheme in which he promised to invest money in real estate. An attorney representing several victims said one client suffered a loss of $260,000 and now has no source of income and a second client suffered a loss of $100,000 and now has no source of income. The attorney related that an additional four victims lost their inheritance. Another victim suffered a loss of $125,000 is employed along with her significant other and the two have five children. Another victim suffered a loss of $250,000 and resides in a small two-bedroom apartment overseas with her husband and five children and the money was meant to be used to buy an apartment to live in. Another one of those victims is in the poverty income bracket receiving Medicaid and food stamps, and the family expenses exceed their income. The last of those victims suffered an inheritance loss of $10,000, which was to be set aside for their child.

Its not clear what motivated Dovi to commit his crime. Dovi’s attorneys wrote the following to the sentencing Judge: “We respectfully submit that Dovi’s crimes, however serious, were not crimes of excess, gluttony, or self-indulgence. They were not motivated by malevolence, cruelty, greed or ego. He did not seek to enrich himself through his criminal activity. He did not agree to divert or launder money in order to finance a luxurious lifestyle. Rather, Dovi convinced himself that occasional use of his IOLTA account as a quick fix to cover short-term cash flow issues and to plug gaps, although unlawful, would not come back to hurt his clients or compromise his standing as a lawyer. Dovi was wrong. Covering one payment by using another led to a long, downward spiral. The ability to make whole his clients and investors got away from him. He fell deeper and deeper into an abyss, and his financial woes were compounded by fear, shame and embarrassment. He woke up every day faced with the reality that he was on a path that would lead to disgrace. The worse it got, the more he panicked. Feelings of overwhelming stress and pressure consumed him. Dovi was in survival mode. He did not want to let anybody down. He was scared. In short, the misconduct here was without a hint of malice or decadence. It was so rudimentary, so defenseless, and so senseless, that it should be viewed, more than anything, as the desperate undertaking of a good, but frightened, man who let things get out of control and could not find a way out.”

Dovi’s attorneys wrote the following: “Robert “Dovi” Wisnicki was born on January 6, 1979, in Los Angeles, California. His father, Norman Wisnicki, is a lawyer, and his mother, Harriet, works as a bookkeeper at a nursing home. Norman and Harriet are observant Jews and raised their family in that rich tradition. Dovi and his brothers and sister grew up in a modest, but warm and loving, Jewish home. Dovi’s adolescence was filled with rigorous secular and religious studies and defined by the rituals and routines of an orthodox Jewish family—daily prayers, a kosher diet, attending temple on the Sabbath and holidays. Dovi grew up to be a devout and pious person. Norman and Harriet raised their four children not just to follow the rules and rituals of Judaism, but also to act with ‘menschlikhkeit.’ As a young teenager, he was always ready to help with any of the projects of the synagogue. He was one of the boys who reached out to the less popular students, to newcomers, and to those who struggled socially and academically. In Yiddish parlance, Dovi’s parents raised a “mensch.” Dovi’s kindness and generosity continued through high school, two years of study in Israel, and into college and his studies at Ner Israel Rabbinical College in Maryland. Dovi’s life revolves around his wife and kids. They are the center of his universe. Dovi has been married to his wife, Yonina, for 24 years. By all accounts, Dovi treats Yonina “like a queen.” Dovi and Yonina have five wonderful children. Dovi “always manages to put the kids and Yonina first even though he had a busy work schedule.” The kids “are polite, sweet and giving,”

One of the Deans of Yeshiva University, Fredric Sugarman, wrote a letter in support of Dovi and stated that Dovi did some real estate closings for Dr. Sugarman’s in-laws. Cedarhurst Attorney Nosson Tzvi Abrams, Forest Hills attorney David Alishaev, and Far Rockaways attorney Sholom Wohlgelernter wrote letters extolling the virtues of Dovi. Many victims of Dovi’s crimes, who lost money, wrote letters of support for Dovi, including Rabbi Dov Osina, Carolyn Diamond, Dr. Ezriel Diamond, Sol Greenspan, Rabbi Ahron Kaufman, J. Ari Majer, Joseph Manela, and members of Dov’s own family Daniel Wisnicki, and Dovi’s parents Norman and Harriet Wisnicki (“We have also invested a substantial amount of money with Dovi . . . . We . . . beg for your mercy.”). Norman is an attorney at the multi-State Los Angeles based 45 member law firm of Wolf, Rifkin, Shapiro, Schulman & Rabkin, LLP. Rabbi Kaufman is the Dean of a yeshiva located in Waterbury, CT. The 170 letters of support apparently did not help Dovi at sentencing.

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