Tag: Forgery

On October 19, businessman Michael Arnstein, 41, of Kailua, Hawaii, was sentenced to 9 months in prison for conspiring to forge a federal judge’s signature in connection with a scheme to get websites containing negative reviews of his jewelry company removed from Google search results.

Arnstein is the owner of a jewelry company that was founded by his grandfather Walter Arnstein in 1939. The company is located in Manhattan with a satellite office in Sri Lanka. It specializes in sapphires and sapphire jewelry.

Video: CNN / YouTube

The guilty plea

On September 15, 2017, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York announced that Michael Arnstein, 41, had pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to forge a federal judge’s signature in connection with a scheme to get websites containing negative reviews of his business removed from Google search results.

Michael Arnstein’s company

Arnstein began working at his family’s jewelry company in the mid-1990s and eventually succeeded his father as president. Founded in 1939, the company specializes in selling white sapphires as an alternative to diamonds for engagement rings. The company has an e-commerce website as well as a showroom and workshop in midtown Manhattan. It also has mining and production facilities in Sri Lanka.

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