http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/feb/29/kosher-hot-dog-vendor-indicted-on-fraud-counts/ Kosher hot dog vendor indicted on fraud counts
Zaler falsified orders to woo investors, feds say
By Sara Burnett, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)
Friday, February 29, 2008
Arnold Zaler, left, owner of Zaler's Kosher Korners, checks in on one of his stands at Invesco Field at Mile High in 2006. He also sold hot dogs at Coors Field, the Pepsi Center and Super Target stores.
Arnold Zaler, left, owner of Zaler's Kosher Korners, checks in on one of his stands at Invesco Field at Mile High in 2006. He also sold hot dogs at Coors Field, the Pepsi Center and Super Target stores.
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Zaler's Kosher hot dogs were a fan favorite at Broncos and Rockies games.
But they may not have been as popular as owner Arnold Zaler wanted investors to believe.
A federal grand jury indicted Zaler, 58, on 30 counts of wire, bank and mail fraud this week after an FBI investigation.
The indictment alleges that Zaler falsified orders to sell hot dogs at the Pepsi Center, Invesco Field at Mile High, Coors Field and Super Target grocery stores.
He then used the orders as credit to secure at least $2.2 million in loans from two investment companies and an individual investor, the indictment says.
Zaler could not be reached by phone Thursday. He was not home when a reporter visited his southeast Denver house, and court records do not identify his defense attorney.
Zaler's family started Zaler's Kosher Meats in Denver in 1913. Zaler took over the company a few years ago, operating a meat market and restaurant on South Tamarac Drive near Hampden Avenue and Zaler's Kosher Korners at Invesco Field and Coors Field.
The business made news in late 2006, when a Denver-based kosher-certifying agency pulled certification for the Kosher Korners locations, saying that they did not operate according to kosher standards.
In a fight played out in the Intermountain Jewish News, Zaler blamed the nonprofit agency, ScrollK/Vaad Hakashrus, for the closing of the South Tamarac location. He said he had a "difference of opinion" with the agency and said its staff had acted unfairly - allegations that Scroll K denied.
At the time, Zaler admitted that the restaurant closed "because it proved to be a losing proposition."
According to the indictment, Zaler began his scheme in October 2005.
That month, he created a fake purchase order stating that Kroenke Sports Entertainment, which operates the Pepsi Center, had ordered more than $700,000 worth of hot dogs.
He then told a New Jersey-based investment company that if it loaned him money, he would repay it with payments from Kroenke Sports. Between 2005 and 2006, the investment company transferred about $469,000 into Zaler's bank account, the indictment says.
The same scheme was used on other investors as well, the indictment says.
Zaler was issued a summons to appear in U.S. District Court in Denver on March 11 on four counts of wire fraud, two counts of mail fraud and 24 counts of bank fraud.
If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 on each count of wire and mail fraud, and up to 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine on each count of bank fraud.
burnetts@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5343. Staff writer Roger Fillion contributed to the report.
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