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Kosher hot dog vendor indicted on fraud counts

Zaler falsified orders to woo investors, feds say

By Sara Burnett, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published February 29, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

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Arnold Zaler, owner of Zaler's Kosher Korners, checks in on one of his stands at Invesco Field at Mile High in 2006.

Photo by Darin McGregor / The Rocky/2006

Arnold Zaler, owner of Zaler's Kosher Korners, checks in on one of his stands at Invesco Field at Mile High in 2006.

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Zaler's Kosher hot dogs were a fan favorite at Broncos and Rockies games.

But they may not have been as popular as owner Arnold Zaler wanted investors to believe.

A federal grand jury indicted Zaler, 58, on 30 counts of wire, bank and mail fraud this week after an FBI investigation.

The indictment alleges that Zaler falsified orders to sell hot dogs at the Pepsi Center, Invesco Field at Mile High, Coors Field and Super Target grocery stores.

He then used the orders as credit to secure at least $2.2 million in loans from two investment companies and an individual investor, the indictment says.

Zaler could not be reached by phone Thursday. He was not home when a reporter visited his southeast Denver house, and court records do not identify his defense attorney.

Zaler's family started Zaler's Kosher Meats in Denver in 1913. Zaler took over the company a few years ago, operating a meat market and restaurant on South Tamarac Drive near Hampden Avenue and Zaler's Kosher Korners at Invesco Field and Coors Field.

The business made news in late 2006, when a Denver-based kosher-certifying agency pulled certification for the Kosher Korners locations, saying that they did not operate according to kosher standards.

In a fight played out in the Intermountain Jewish News, Zaler blamed the nonprofit agency, ScrollK/Vaad Hakashrus, for the closing of the South Tamarac location. He said he had a "difference of opinion" with the agency and said its staff had acted unfairly - allegations that Scroll K denied.

At the time, Zaler admitted that the restaurant closed "because it proved to be a losing proposition."

According to the indictment, Zaler began his scheme in October 2005.

That month, he created a fake purchase order stating that Kroenke Sports Entertainment, which operates the Pepsi Center, had ordered more than $700,000 worth of hot dogs.

He then told a New Jersey-based investment company that if it loaned him money, he would repay it with payments from Kroenke Sports. Between 2005 and 2006, the investment company transferred about $469,000 into Zaler's bank account, the indictment says.

The same scheme was used on other investors as well, the indictment says.

Zaler was issued a summons to appear in U.S. District Court in Denver on March 11 on four counts of wire fraud, two counts of mail fraud and 24 counts of bank fraud.

If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 on each count of wire and mail fraud, and up to 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine on each count of bank fraud.

burnetts@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5343. Staff writer Roger Fillion contributed to the report.

Comments

  • February 29, 2008

    7:36 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    happymike44 writes:

    What a shame to have a good business and to ruin it and your good name over money.If you get up everyday and feed your family .What more could you ask for.To all the people who think defrauding people is okay.I feel we lose a little more trust in each other when someone does this.

  • February 29, 2008

    10:28 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    MrJim writes:

    I'll bet his grandparents are rolling in their graves. A long standing family business ruined, not by mistakes, but by greed and lies. Sad to see.

  • March 8, 2008

    5:23 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    Parker writes:

    This is unbelievable. Back in 1984, he was president of Softie, Inc., a company that created software and developed games for Nintendo and PCs. These were big games - Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy, etc. When things started to go bad with the company, he pulled scams and misprepresented himself and the worth of his company to cover the losses. In 1997, he was arrested in Arizona for fraud totaling millions of dollars, swindling as many as 60 people and served time in jail.

    I can't believe he pulled something like that again. Earlier, he had been well-established in the Phoenix, AZ community and was considered a strong Democratic candidate for Congress. He had a real chance to come back this time and really build more than just a good business with concessions in Denver and elsewhere. Not everyone gets a second chance like this considering what happened to him before and he just throws it away.

  • March 8, 2008

    6:23 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    Parker writes:

    In my previous post, I omitted to say what others pointed out in their replies. The real tragedy here is that he took his father and grandfather's good names and good reputations and ran a business into the ground that had been in operation under his family since 1913. It's very sad.