A former businessman who defrauded businesses and individuals through his two companies has been given new conditions of release following a court hearing on Tuesday.
Paul Hendler, 47, of South Hero, was summoned for failure to comply with previous terms of supervised release.
Hendler’s new conditions of release, ordered by federal Judge John Conroy, mandate Hendler is not allowed to commit another crime, must submit to DNA sample collections, must advise the court if he is changing his address or phone number and must appear before the court when ordered.
Additional conditions of release state Hendler is not allowed to travel outside of Vermont without court approval and he must forfeit his passport to the court within 72 hours.
Hendler was also charged with sexual assault of a Winooski woman on June 9 of this year. He pleaded innocent to the felony charge when arraigned in Superior Court in Burlington.
In May 2015, federal Judge J. Garvan Murtha sentenced Hendler to 27 months in prison following a guilty plea on 14 charges of felony fraud. A press release from the U.S. attorney detailed how Hendler defrauded two businesses he helped create, JavaPop and Green Mountain Digital. Hendler bilked the two businesses as well as Blueberry Hill Inn in Goshen; Jayni Chase, the wife of comedian Chevy Chase; New York doctor Paul Brown; and actor Christopher Lloyd of tens of thousands of dollars between 2007 and 2011.
Collectively, Hendler was ordered to pay back $550,000 in restitution following that sentencing. Hendler had sought to break up the charges into different trials and has maintained his innocence throughout.
At the end of his prison sentence, Hendler was also sentenced to three years of supervised release.
The Valley News detailed how Hendler violated the restitution payments by failing to pay the victims the court ordered value, which was “at least 10% of the defendant’s gross monthly income until the financial obligation is paid in full,” according to court documents.
Court documents also show Hendler was notified of his violations to his previous conditions on July 17. Along with the sexual assault arrest and failure to pay restitution, those violations also included failure to allow his probation officer access to his financial records and failure to report to the probation officer as ordered by the court.
Hendler was represented by Burlington lawyer Jessica Burke, who declined to comment on the case. Assistant United States Attorney Gregory Waples prosecuted Hendler’s case in 2015 but spokesperson Craig LaPorte was unavailable to answer questions Tuesday.
Read the story on VTDigger here: Convicted former businessman ordered new conditions of release.