Career criminal testifies he duped Adam Kaplan into paying him to make federal fraud charges go away

A Brooklyn man with a criminal record in Texas, Missouri and New York told a federal jury on Monday how he fed his gambling addiction by swindling a former Great Neck stockbroker currently on trial for fraud out of more than $100,000.

Career criminal Ronald Roth told the court that he convinced Adam Kaplan, 36 — who was indicted along with his twin brother, Daniel Kaplan, for overcharging client fees and other crimes — that he could use his connections with a former Israeli intelligence officer and organized crime to make the 21-count federal case go away.

In reality, Roth, who pleaded guilty in January to two counts of wire fraud, had no mob connections and the Mossad agent he referred to as "Ghost" was a figment of his imagination, he said.

"Adam was asking me to help him get out of the problems he was in," Roth, who is cooperating with the prosecution in return for favorable treatment, told the court. "I made up a whole bunch of things."

Federal prosecutors charged the brothers in 2023 with stealing at least $5 million from their IHT Wealth Management clients, some of them elderly and disabled, by diverting funds and charging more than half a million dollars in fees.

The Long Island duo also was hit with civil charges by the Securities and Exchange Commission after spending years bouncing from one brokerage house to another.

The brothers have pleaded not guilty to all the charges and have denied any wrongdoing.

After the indictment, Roth said he and Adam Kaplan hatched a plan to strong-arm their victims with incessant threatening text messages and personal visits from hired goons.

Adam Kaplan gave thousands of dollars to Roth with the understanding that Roth would use the money to pay for guys to show up at the home of a client who sued him in State Supreme Court in Nassau County and "if it took getting physical, get physical," he said.

The brother also paid him to intimidate his ex-girlfriend, her sister and her father to get her to return some luxury items that he had given her during their romance, Roth said.

Federal prosecutor Paul Scotti showed the jury multiple text message exchanges between Adam Kaplan and Roth, laying out the plan to send a skull and crossbones to the ex-partner and her family "40 times per day for 8 straight hours" to get the expensive gifts back.

Roth also said he claimed to have sent black roses to a cousin who had lost money with the Kaplans and called him up using a robotic voice modifier ordering him to "stop asking questions."

He also convinced Adam Kaplan that Ghost had the ability to cause their targets’ cellphones to catch fire to destroy any evidence of the threats.

But none of the intimidation actually happened, Roth said. He told Adam Kaplan the money was going to the technology and the manpower, but it was actually feeding his addiction.

"I’m a compulsive gambler," Roth said. "I gambled most of it away."

Federal prosecutors have charged Adam Kaplan with additional counts of obstruction of justice and conspiracy to commit wire and bank fraud, after they said he hatched a new scheme with Roth to invest in flower imports.

"We were using new money to pay off old money," Roth said, referring to the flower investors. He said he also split the money with Adam Kaplan.

Daniel Kaplan was not charged with obstruction or the additional fraud.

Roth had served time in federal prison for a scheme to sell phony flower futures, according to court records.

Roth admitted in court to having served prison time for transporting goods across state lines in Texas, passing bad checks in Missouri and bank fraud in New York. He also said he did a couple of stints behind bars for violating the terms of his federal supervised release and for grand larceny.

He said he wasn't surprised when the FBI came calling in April 2024 while he was running his flower scam.

"I knew exactly what it was about because we were doing quite a few things," he told the jury.

Mark Cohen, defense attorney for Adam Kaplan, urged the jury during opening statements not to trust what Roth said.

"With this history, you can't tell when one of Roth's lies ends and the next one begins," he said. "You can't rely on his word to convict my client."