11-9 news: Denver meat business owner gets 15 years for fraud
Zaler's Kosher Meats has contracts with Pepsi Center and Invesco Field to operate hot dog stands, according to UPI reports. Zaler forged contracts to convince his investors he had additional large contracts with those venues. His sentence was almost double the eight years in prison recommended by prosecutors.
"He is a hard-core recidivist, and sentences of lesser time imposed on him in the past have utterly failed at preventing further crimes of fraud and deception," said U.S. District Judge John Kane at Friday's hearing. "He deserves a sentence where he is too old to offend again." Zaler's defense lawyers had argued that he was trying to keep his business going and never intended to defraud investors.