A retired upstate New York judge and former prosecutor who reportedly committed suicide in a shootout with the FBI has been implicated in a massive bribery fraud scheme, according to evidence of voided checks and text messages.
Stewart Rosenwasser, 72, cashed dozens of checks and money orders from wealthy co-defendants over a period of nearly two years, pocketing $63,000 in exchange for fabricating an embezzlement case as the Orange County District Attorney's Office, a federal indictment in the case revealed.
Checks from co-defendant Mutu Sudani, including a series of $5,000 payments marked “loans,” were part of the paperwork linking Rosenwasser to the scandal, and on Tuesday morning federal agents arrested him at his home, where he apparently opened fire on them and then killed himself.
“It is truly heartbreaking that this has come to an end,” Orange County District Attorney David Hoobler said in a statement Wednesday. “My heartfelt condolences go out to the family.”
The U.S. Attorney's Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but the 43-page indictment filed against Rosenwasser and Sudani on Monday tells us a lot about the case.
Prosecutors said Wednesday that Soudani was arrested and indicted on federal corruption charges on Tuesday and released on bail, but it's the disgraced prosecutor who has been getting all the attention.
The documents reveal allegations that the prosecutor at the time and the former restaurateur met secretly at secluded locations, including a local diner where Soudani allegedly handed over a check for $15,000 in November 2022, lending credence to a spy novel.
The bribery scheme continued for several months, with Sudani allegedly bribing a prosecutor friend to fabricate embezzlement cases against his sister and nephew, who allegedly had stolen money from him.
According to the indictment, Rosenwasser knew the former billionaire restaurateur for nearly 40 years and even represented him in court in the 1990s.
He earned his degree from Albany Law School in 1977 and began a 47-year legal career before joining the District Attorney's Office and being elected County Court Judge in 1999.
He retired from the bench in 2006 but returned to the Orange County District Attorney's Office 13 years later as special counsel for policy, research and legislative development, and head of the office's Conviction Integrity Unit.
But federal prosecutors said that by October 2022, Rosenwasser had promised his old friend, Soudani, that he would make his “best efforts” to investigate and prosecute his sister and nephew.
As promised, prosecutors have arrested Soudani's nephew, Martin, and his sister, Eman, and charged them with embezzling $1.6 million from Moots Soudani, the indictment states.
“Once I receive your bank records certified, I will be presenting them to a grand jury,” Rosenwasser allegedly texted Sudani on Dec. 23, 2022. “I have arranged for an audit of all wire transfers.”
Sudani responded, “You will be very happy at the end. God bless you. You are the only person who can do this. I must meet you at the place you say for five minutes before I leave for Colorado. Thank you.”
In March 2023, Martin Soudani and Eman Soudani were indicted on theft and other charges, with him acting as lead prosecutor in the proceedings against the pair.
In court the following month, Martin Sudani's lawyers asked Rosenwasser to recuse himself from the case, arguing that his “relationship with this family appears to be at the very least antagonistic.”
Rosenwasser maintained he had no conflict of interest and denied representing Mutu Sudani.
“As I stated in our initial telephone conversation, I have no recollection of ever serving as personal counsel for Mr. Mount Sudani, and I would not even call my relationship with the Sudani family a social one,” he wrote to the defense lawyer, prosecutors said.
The federal government claims that was a lie and that Rosenwasser had by then accepted $25,000 in bribes.
The payments continued, including ten $1,000 bills that Sudani allegedly purchased on May 10, 2023, of which Rosenwasser deposited $3,000 five days later.
Amid growing tensions within the district attorney's office, Rosenwasser was finally removed from the embezzlement case in June 2023 and the prosecution began to unravel.
Ultimately, the case against Eman Soudani was dismissed and her son made a deal to plead guilty to grand larceny in exchange for a one-to-seven year prison sentence.
But as late as January 2024, Rosenwasser had still cashed a $15,000 check from Mutu Soudani.
On June 18, Mutz Sudani confessed that Rosenwasser had instructed him to “pay by money order and cash rather than by check so that the funds could not be easily traced.”
Both men were indicted this week, a tragic outcome for Rosenwasser.
Additional reporting by Joe Marino
