by Rabon, Don
It’s also not to be underestimated that it was because of Mr. Klosek going to the original FBI agent in this case that he was able to cause this to happen, that he was able to cause the best team, the United States of America, to handle this — the scope of this kind of a case, to become involved to begin with.
I say that because I happen to have an entirely unrelated case, the clients were victims of a fraud scheme involving millions of dollars, that I’ve been trying to shop to different law enforcement entities for about a year. It ultimately may go somewhere. But Mr. Klosek was able to find the right agent at the right time and let him know what was going on, and by getting the FBI involved, that has brought us here today, and to bring Mr. Noel to justice, and to bring a million dollars in funds that had — you know, it has been said at different times there might be some sort of inevitable discovery of the fraud, but Mr. Klosek was able — because of the timing of this case, they were still able to seize almost a million dollars, which pales in comparison to the losses suffered by the victims, but certainly it’s not an insignificant amount.
He wore a wire.
He was threatened.
He testified. He was part of the conspiracy, played a significant role, but performed at the highest level of cooperation that can be recognized by the government or the Court in every aspect of this scheme, beginning with voluntary self-disclosure all the way through testimony at trial.
The United States evaluated the harm, the relative harm, done by Mr. Klosek at the beginning of this case with the initial plea agreement, which was a 60-month cap. Mr. Klosek, not motivated by greed or willful ill-will or wanting to destroy the government’s case or anything like that, but instead, I think, as observed by the Court, subject to the bizarre manipulation by his father, for no other explanation than a perverse desire to control Alex Klosek, Alex Klosek did not disclose the full extent of Noel’s involvement in part of that scheme, but ultimately did and testified truthfully at trial.
And, obviously, as a trial attorney and as a former Assistant U.S. Attorney and as the attorney there on the ground with Mr. Klosek in the interviews initially with the United States, my heart goes out to the prosecution team of having to deal with this situation on the eve of trial. It’s extraordinarily distressing and extremely regretful. However, Your Honor, with that in mind, the scope of what Mr. Klosek had done had already been evaluated, and the statements and the failures to disclose didn’t change what he had already admitted to have done. He fully admitted to have been involved in the scheme. Now, he obviously made misstatements about when Noel was involved in part of one of those schemes, but Mr. Klosek had fully admitted to the scope of his wrongdoing.
And, Your Honor, it also bears mentioning that the scope of his wrongdoing, again, while perhaps motivated by greed in the sense that he was able to earn a salary during that period of time, he was not engaged in the siphoning off of millions of dollars for other investment vehicles and things like that. His wrongdoing was shame at having lost that money, and then Noel’s, of course, siphoning off more funds until, for him, it came crashing down, and it was his guilt and his desire to do right at the end of the day that brought everyone here.
So it certainly is not — it’s not laudable, and Mr. Klosek has — he will forever have this felony conviction as a mark, will forever have an enormously massive restitution judgment against him that will follow him the rest of his life. The rest of his life he will always be paying money back to these victims in this case. Every month. Every time he earns a cent, he will be paying money back for the rest of his life. He is penniless, his wife will need to move back home with her parents, and he’s going to prison. He is — for all of his guilt, remorse, and the good works that he did when he recognized what was wrong, this man will be severely punished. This man would still be severely pushed even with the government’s original assessment of the level of wrongdoing he had done, which is 60 months.
Now, I can understand entirely the government’s recommendation of 120 months based on their experience in this case and the gut-wrenching situation that Mr. Klosek’s regrettable actions put them in. However, I would argue to the Court that’s not an evaluation of the 3553(a) factors in terms of the scope of what he has done in this case, the scope of what he has done to try to help rectify the wrongs, to bring a much worse man to justice, and considering the fact that he will forever be crippled by what he has done in this case, even with a prison term of 60 months in prison.
I can understand the government would want to double that, but, Your Honor, I would appeal to the Court as a dispassionate reviewer of this case and the ability of the Court to do the ultimate justice in this case.
EPISODE THREE: ALEX’S AUNT ADDRESSES THE COURT
Basically, I traveled here — it took me all last night to get here. And I’m ready to throw my notes away, to be honest with you, because a lot of the things that I was going to say have been said.
I can tell you that Alex is not the person — the person that I know is not the person who is being portrayed in the news media in Asheville when I looked for it online.
He lived with me during his college years, and during those years, instead of doing all the collegial things that he should have been doing I guess, he was doing budget plans for one of the poorest churches in the City of Baltimore.
He lost his brother, which affected him very, very deeply. His brother was his best friend.He also did all kinds of good things for people. When my mother had a heart attack, he helped me with her the whole time he was there.
Even last fall, he came up because he wanted to make sure that if he had to go to jail that he saw my mother again, and he changed doors for her, cut back shrubs for her, all the things — she’s going to be 93 on her next birthday.
He told me about all this at one point when I was visiting him, and I said, “Oh, Alex, why didn’t you just let somebody know,” you know.
And he said, “Honestly, Aunt Pat, I thought I could get their money back for them.”
And then he went on to tell me that he really liked the people so much and it was that much more hurtful to him because he liked his clients so much; they were such nice people.
So he felt avery, very deep sense of sorrow there. And as a result of doing the good things — as was said before, he initiated the contact with the FBI — he has lost his home, his vehicles, his credentials to practice his trade, which is being a CPA.
And he has never ever lived extravagantly.
He does not have big homes.
He doesn’t take fancy vacations.
He doesn’t have all the technological things that people like to play with. In fact, on the last family vacation, he and his wife, you know, slept on the floor in sleeping bags.
He’s a very, very good husband to his wife. She is a cancer survivor.
He has been there with her through countless surgeries and all kinds of illnesses. And now he’s facing the possibility that he’s going to lose the simple pleasures of his life. I’m not saying that he’s blameless, but he’s a very, very good person.
In my daily prayers every single day, one of the lines that always strikes me is “Where there is despair, put hope,” and it would be my hope that you would give him hope and show mercy when you make the sentencing.
EPISODE FOUR: ALEX’S WIFE ADDRESSES THE COURT
Thank you, Your Honor, for allowing me to speak today.
I’m sorry; I have a very low voice and I’m not feeling very well today.
Your Honor, I know Alex Klosek to be a loving, caring, dependable leader and a very loyal person. He is a hard-working, dedicated, God-fearing man who enjoys serving his faith and civic communities. I have personally witnessed him give a homeless man a shirt off his back and frequently lend a neighbor a hand when they need it. Further, though we have had — we’ve walked through much tragedy and strife in our first five and a half years of marr
iage, my husband has been a very supportive and faithful man to me.
Alex lived under long-standing control and manipulation by a very domineering father, which included having him take the blame — Alex — take the blame in covering up for his father’s actions oftentimes. This was the source of what would otherwise have been seen as very bizarre behavior he had with the government last year. As I understand it, he was simply doing what he’d always done since childhood:
He had to cover for his dad’s involvement in CEP, as his father demanded it.
He also had to cover for himself, because, again, he was following his father’s orders.
I know this seems like very strange behavior for a man of Alex’s age, but Alex had a very paralyzing fear of his father. Unfortunately, I believe Bryan Noel saw this vulnerability in my husband and used the same intimidation and manipulative dominance over Alex to get him to do what he wanted him to do, and I believe very strongly this was against my husband’s better judgment. He was unable to stand up for himself or the clients as a result. Since his separation from his father and Bryan Noel, I have witnessed Alex become a much more positive and hopeful individual.
While I did not know the details initially, I observed Alex under an intense amount of stress related to his job at CEP. As time progressed, I saw that stress turn into complete anguish at what I grew to understand was the loss of client funds from his losses, Alex’s losses, in the market and Bryan’s scheming. Alex became increasingly depressed, even to the point of suicide, when he realized that the money was not coming back and he just couldn’t fix it. I know he desperately wanted the clients to regain their money back and fix this situation.
His intent was never to harm anyone.
I firmly believe that.
Your Honor, I need Alex’s loving physical, emotional, and financial support as I continue to battle with my ongoing health problems and a very uncertain future. His family also needs him to be able to provide them with a very positive role model that can change the trajectory for future generations from one of manipulation and unhealthy behavior towards responsible and godly life choices.
EPISODE FIVE: ALEX ADDRESSES THE COURT
I’m truly sorry for everything that has happened here, for the losses the clients have experienced, the life change, and everything that has happened. I know there have been serious negative repercussions. And it was never my intent to lose anyone’s money or divert anyone’s money or scheme anyone out of anything.
When I got out of college, I wanted to be successful and I wanted to be respectable, and when I started working at CEP in 2001 utilizing the trading system that I had developed in college, it seemed like that was becoming a reality, but ultimately, in 2002, things took a dramatic turn for the worse, and what seemed like it was a foolproof system started going bad late in that year, and I was very afraid to tell Bryan about that for fear of how he would react. And at the same time, in 2003, Bryan’s new company Titan Composites was getting started. I know you’re intimately aware of the details of all those transactions, Judge, and I won’t go into great detail.
But I was approached to lend initially two and a half million dollars to Titan.
It was supposed to be on a temporary basis.
And I was not in favor of that initially, but when Bryan sets out — when Bryan Noel sets out to do something, he has a way of making sure that it happens.
And so ultimately that money was lent, more money was lent, and the cover-up got worse, the trading got worse, and basically, Judge, I feel like I got into a hole that I could not get myself out of. I was having to engage in riskier trades and doing things that were not helping to gain any of that money but, in actuality, ended up losing some more of those funds.
And I desperately wanted to get that money back, but after two and a half years without that money being returned, it was clear that there was nothing that I could do to fix the situation. It was not getting any better, and the only option I had was to get an attorney and to go to the authorities and tell them about what had happened with CEP.
Judge, words cannot express the remorse, the sorrow and the anguish I feel for these clients that are here today.I know that it has desperately changed their lives for the worse, and nothing would give me greater pleasure than to be able to repay every one of them everything that they had on paper that was invested within CEP.
I take full responsibility for my actions, Judge, for the wrong that I have done here and the consequences of those actions, and earthly success is no longer the guide that I use to measure things, as the way it once was.
EPISODE SIX: THE FIRST VICTIM ADDRESSES ALEX
First of all, Mr. Klosek, this sounds like you’re a victim here. You’re not. The victims are sitting right out there. Every one of us, we’ve been victimized. We’re not your clients. We’re your victims. Maybe you didn’t intend it to be that way, but we are.
You did give testimony, I understand, against Bryan Noel, but it was the last minute, and it was to save yourself. It wasn’t to help us. And as far as your marriage and your personal life, I think this is the second marriage, according to my first conversation with you. When you told me, “Mrs. Parker, your investments are safe, they are safe, you cannot lose this money,” and the person that was sent to my house to take my money came five times and took the phone and got the money across the telephone, I think that’s somewhat of a violation of using the telephone in someone else’s house.
I got statements from your office which were bogus, and I think that is against the law, to send bogus mail through the mail. I think it’s called a federal law to not send things through the mail that are fraudulent, which I got and I turned over to this Court.
And as far as you helping to come to a resolution with this, I think Roy Cooper with the state department probably did more for these victims than anybody, because we called him and we said, “What do we do,” and he said, “You hire a lawyer,” and we did — and we’re still paying for it — or we wouldn’t have gotten here yet. I still pay him. I pay BB&T every month for what you did, to pay for my lawyer. And BB&T bank told me: “Nobody, nobody, Ms. Parker, is paying this kind of dividends on your account. Something is wrong. We will check into it.” And they did. The people in this courtroom are the victims Roy Cooper and the people sitting out there are the people that brought it to here. And as far as five years of your life being given up, I have spent the last ten years of my life trying to make up for the loss I have, and I still haven’t made it up and probably never will. I know your life is important, but so are all these old people sitting out here with these gray hairs, including myself. We’re important. And as far as you being victimized by Bryan Noel, you’re an adult. You are not taking responsibility for what you did. You’re whining. I don’t hear anybody out there except myself whining as much as I do you. You have not been victimized; we have.
And as far as you getting a lesser sentence for helping bring this to justice, huh-uh; you do not deserve that, and I do not recommend that. You’re a young man, but you — still, you’re a grown man, and you should have known right from wrong, and you should have not wronged all these people out of their life savings. As far as $2 million I hear, we’re talking about $11 million, not 2. Where’s the other money? I could have taken a heck of a good vacation on $11 million. Or even $2 million. I have worked the last ten years and I still haven’t made up what you took. And I know that you are a computer genius, because you told me so. If you’re a computer genius, you should have had better sense than to invest all those people’s money in something you didn’t know about. I think you broke a lot of laws, not one but many, and the most important one is the trust of the human beings that you dealt with.
And I know to be a fact I talked to you on the phone. I know that my money was wired from my house, my kitchen table, to your company, and I saw no dividends and never a dime back off from it. Not even a letter of apology. Not e
ven a phone call. Nothing .Now, if there’s so much remorse here, by George, I’d have written a thank you note for all that money you took and said, “Hey, I’m sorry I did this.”
And I think it’s a last effort on your part to sell Bryan Noel down the road. Which I’m not saying he doesn’t need to go down the road; you both do. And that’s all I have to say.
EPISODE SEVEN: A SECOND VICTIM ADDRESSES ALEX
I debated whether or not to speak at this particular hearing, sentencing hearing, but I listened to what Mr. Klosek said, and he said he didn’t mean to hurt anybody.
In 2002, was it, you were aware that you were already losing money? In 2003 you were aware that funds were being diverted, and in 2004 you walked me to the bank to sign the papers to take my money away. If you didn’t want to hurt anybody, that would have been a good time to say, “Ms. O’Ryan, this is not a good idea.”
But you were protecting yourselves. More money in; it would not be found out quite so fast, would it? You falsified reports in order to keep customers and to protect yourself. We were honest. We asked for 1099s. We reported our gains to the federal government. I paid a thousand dollars in taxes because of gains that were fictitiously reported to me that the federal government has told me I cannot recoup because the time period has passed for me to file an amended return. I filed it, but they denied it. So that thousand dollars, you stole that, too.
You’ve imprisoned me in my home.
I can’t afford to move to near my kids, and I have a grandchild on the way. The plan always was for me to move near my kids and help them when my grandchildren came. I can’t afford to do that. I can’t afford to change jobs. I couldn’t help my son through a bad divorce and I couldn’t help my daughter when she was refused and Mr. Noel stole that from me.
I respectfully request, Your Honor — this man has been walking the streets for the past five years, the same sidewalks that I walk. I don’t want to see him outside again. I know he will get out. I know that we’re asking for ten years; he’s asking for five. Let me pass the next ten years without seeing him at a gas station and buying something. Please do that for us.