Nothing about Stewart Kaiser's case had been routine, so it was no wonder that his sentencing yesterday would stray from the usual script.
The attorneys bickered aloud before the hearing began. A scientist sat in the gallery, waiting to testify about preventing a biological terrorist attack. A lawyer for Kaiser's wife offered to halt the proceeding so she could privately tell the judge about her epileptic seizures and sudden blindness.
After once reneging on a plea deal, Kaiser, a 38-year-old air conditioner installer from Sussex County, admitted in December that he had falsely claimed to have patented a portable defense system that could detect biological and chemical agents and cleanse the air.
He announced the invention in a press release 13 days after Sept. 11, 2001, then cashed in after the stock price for R-Tec, the publicly traded company he managed, increased fivefold in days.
Prosecutors said Kaiser was the worst kind of con artist, suggesting that even in the days before yesterday's hearing, he had concocted and exaggerated family illnesses to try to avoid prison.
His pitch for leniency failed. Concluding that Kaiser was an opportunist who had only minimally accepted responsibility for his crime, Chief U.S. District Judge John Bissell sentenced him to a year and a day in prison, two months short of the maximum term under his plea.
"This was clearly a crime of opportunity brought on by the tragedy of 9/11" and the national anxiety that ensued, the judge said. "This man, managing the business affairs of R-Tec, literally preyed upon that vulnerability and that concern."
To the end, Kaiser seemed slow to acknowledge his crime. He spoke only briefly to the judge yesterday, standing and reading quickly from a hand-written note. In it, he said he was sorry for issuing the press release, then pleaded for Bissell to spare his family "a tragic ending."
Kaiser and his attorney, Mark Wasserman, said Kaiser moved to Florida last year to care for his ailing parents. He said Kaiser's wife, Nancy Vitolo, who will be sentenced next week on a charge of lying to authorities, was inching toward blindness, suffered from grand mal seizures and also needed his daily care. And he said their 5-year-old son had a serious eating disorder.
"I beg your honor to let me stay with my sick wife and son," Kaiser said.
The prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Kirsch, called the argument "yet another attempt to contrive and manipulate."
Kirsch said Kaiser said he had filed for personal and corporate bankruptcy six times since 1989. He lured his relatives and friends to invest in his company, then used their money to buy a $400,000 home, a boat and personal items at high-end stores.
The 2001 incident that led to the charges wasn't the first. Seven months before, Kaiser was forced by federal securities regulators to correct a press release that claimed his Flanders-based company had patented "the greatest breakthrough in air filter technology."
After the Twin Towers fell, R-Tec announced it had developed and patented the Chemical & Biological Alarm and Neutralization Defense System, or C-Band, for use in homes, schools and businesses.
"There is no greater travesty as to have the technology to save lives and not use it," a press release boasted. It said the C-Band "answered the call of government leaders."
In less than a week, the stock price grew from 46 cents a share to more than $2. More than 360,000 shares traded hands. Using his mother's brokerage account, Kaiser sold 50,000 shares and netted $68,000.
Kirsch said the C-Band was little more than an empty filing cabinet with lights and a siren mounted on top.
"There is nothing as morally reprehensible as exploiting the anxieties of Sept. 11," Kirsch said. "This is a fraud of undeniable moral revulsion."
The prosecutor maintained that Kaiser continued his con right up until sentencing. He produced Florida driving records that show Vitolo claimed to have 20/40 vision just a few months ago and pay stubs to suggest she was working 45 hours a week in a department store as recently as January.
Bissell declined an invitation from a lawyer representing Vitolo to bring her to the courtroom. The judge said he appreciated the demands of caring for family members, but that Kaiser's crime deserved a stiff penalty.
"A sentence that did not include some sort of significant incarceration would be viewed by this defendant as another successful con," Bissell said. "He must be deterred."
He also ordered Kaiser to pay $68,000 in restitution and to surrender to prison by May 13.
After the hearing, Wasserman disputed the prosecutor's contention that the C-Band wasn't real and said he was prepared to call a scientist to testify about the device.
"It existed," he said.
Asked if the C-Band would ever be developed, Wasserman said, "I don't know that. The government shut us down."
