Convicted con man sentenced for third time

In 1996, a federal judge in Philadelphia sentenced Peter Bistrian to 30 months behind bars, calling him a "consummate con man" for his role in a $1.5 million loan scam.

But that prison term didn't change Bistrian's wayward ways.

Yesterday, Bistrian was sentenced on federal fraud charges for a third time, and this stay in the clink will be much longer.

U.S. District Judge Jan E. DuBois sentenced Bistrian to 57 months behind bars.

Bistrian, 50, a ponytailed former University of Delaware football player, argued that he should be sentenced to time served because he had been punished enough.

He has been in federal custody since August 2005.

"If you give me this one final chance . . . you'll never see me again," Bistrian said to the judge.

But DuBois was not about to be conned by the con man.

"[Time served] is not appropriate because of your criminal history. I've seen what you did to other judges," DuBois said.

Bistrian had been granted leniency for two fraud convictions in federal courts in New Jersey and Pennsylvania in 1994 and 1996, only to commit frauds again in 2003 and 2005.

His attorney, Robert Goldman, a former federal prosecutor, said Bistrian cooperated with one of his fraud victims by providing information on an accomplice and giving officials at the Federal Detention Center (FDC) information about potential assaults on prison guards and other inmates.

On one occasion, he said, Bistrian told prison officials about a note one inmate asked him to pass on to Kaboni Savage, a violent North Philadelphia drug dealer serving a 30-year sentence.

Bistrian was later badly beaten by a Savage gang member who suspected him of being a rat.

Goldman said Bistrian had spent 458 days in a special housing unit known as SHU - essentially solitary confinement - often without due process.

"Peter Bistrian has been treated like an animal by the FDC and almost killed," Goldman said, adding that his client was "standing at the abyss."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Bresnick said Bistrian landed in the SHU because he had repeatedly abused phone privileges.

But the judge did cut Bistrian a break by finding that FDC officials needlessly kept Bistrian confined in the SHU without adequate justification.

However, the judge agreed with Bresnick that although Bistrian committed six fraud schemes, four of the six were consolidated into two guilty pleas, effectively reducing his prison time.

In July 2006, Bistrian pleaded guilty to fraud charges in two scams in 2003 and 2005 that cheated victims of $1.8 million. He also pleaded guilty to trying to avoid prosecution by attempting to flee to Canada.

Bistrian and a business associate defrauded a car dealership in West Chester in 2000 and 2001 of $392,374 in a scheme to buy three Mercedes-Benzes and one Porsche with checks that bounced.

One of the Mercedeses was never delivered. The two other Mercedeses and the Porsche were later returned as part of a civil settlement.

While free on bail and awaiting trial in that case, Bistrian was indicted in March 2005 for stealing more than $1.4 million from a South African steel company, Columbus Stainless.

Bistrian said he was president of a consulting company that did business with Columbus and orchestrated a wire transfer of more than $1.4 million to a college friend's Citibank account in New York in payment of a bogus invoice. (Columbus had an agreement with one of its suppliers that payments for the supplier's services should be sent to its Citibank account in New York.)

Bistrian failed to show up for court proceedings in August 2005 and was later arrested trying to flee into Canada. *