The Shul And The Stranger

By Carey Codd, CBS4 Miami

Richard Gold appeared at Chabad Ft. Lauderdale looking for a fresh start.

Gold had recently finished serving a prison sentence and wanted a place to pray. The Chabad Ft. Lauderdale community accepted him quickly.

“When there’s a new member that comes in we’re all pretty much one big family so we welcome that person,” said Monica Feiss.

Feiss said Gold wore the dress — yarmulke, beard and tzitzit, or tassels — of a religious Jewish person. Feiss said Gold was charming and kind and came to the synagogue several times a day to pray.

She said Gold “seemed like a very nice guy.”

But Feiss and others in the community soon learned there was more to Richard Gold’s past than they knew.

Several sources told CBS 4’s Carey Codd that Gold told people he was imprisoned for a white collar crime. In fact, court records show Drug Enforcement Administration agents arrested Gold in San Diego in 1989 for trying to sell four pounds of drugs to undercover agents. Records show Gold attempted to flee and tried to pull a gun on the agents.

Federal court records show Gold pleaded guilty and spent nearly 17 years in prison.

Monica Feiss learned this information after Gold engaged in a whirlwind romance with her mother and married her within months. Feiss said she started seeing small signs of trouble. She allowed the couple to live in her second home but Feiss said months went by with Gold failing to pay the rent. It became a strain on Feiss’ relationship with her mother.

“He got me so behind in mortgage payments that eventually the house was nearly foreclosed,” Feiss said.

After other issues arose — like an unpaid loan for Gold’s dental work — Feiss took the painful step of ending contact with her mother.

“Unfortunately we don’t have contact,” Feiss said. “Only because I don’t know much about this man and whatever I’ve seen he has done pretty awful things to a few people and I don’t want to be around that.”

One of the “things” Feiss refers to is Gold’s business dealing with Ed and Joelle Friedeberg. The Friedebergs met Gold and agreed to open a business with him. The retired couple told CBS 4’s Carey Codd they trusted Gold because he appeared to be deeply religious.

“Usually people that are religious, no matter what religion it is, tend to be very honest,” Ed Friedeberg said.

But the Friedebergs said Gold was not honest in his dealings with them. The couple fronted Gold $175,000 to open a home renovation business — Goldcraft Designs — in a showroom near Galt Ocean Drive in Ft. Lauderdale. The Friedebergs expected Gold to open the showroom and establish the business but the Friedebergs said the showroom never opened and money started disappearing from the company’s accounts.

“There were a number of checks that had been bouncing and we wondered how could the checks be bouncing?” Friedeberg said, adding that it appeared the money was being used to pay Gold’s prior debts.

Eventually, the $175,000 was gone. The Friedebergs said Gold promised to repay them but they have never seen a dime. The Friedebergs filed a lawsuit against Gold in Broward County Circuit Court.

There are others who say Richard Gold wronged them, as well. Tom DePrince said he paid Gold $7,500 to enclose the carport on his Ft. Lauderdale home. DePrince said Gold never did the work and never repaid the money. DePrince’s reason for trusting Gold bears a similarity to the Friedebergs and Monica Feiss.

“He was a very religious man as he came off,” DePrince said. “He told me was. That really sealed the deal.”

Even a rabbi claims Gold took his money. Palm Beach County court records show a rabbi based in New York won a judgment against Gold for $23,500 for failing to renovate the rabbi’s Boca Raton condo.

CBS 4 News tracked Richard Gold down at his Boca Raton town home to get some answers. Gold refused to speak with us, walked inside his home and slammed the door.

Richard Gold’s lawyer, Jason Weaver, told CBS 4 News that Richard Gold is a victim of the bad economy.

“Although we don’t have specific information as to all the complaints which CBS4 says it has received, in general, we can say that those individuals of whom we are aware, lost their money in legitimate business ventures which went bad by market forces, and not by any fault of Mr. Gold,” Weaver said.

Weaver also said, “Mr. Gold himself had significant dollars in these projects which he, too, has lost. His properties are in foreclosure and his vehicles have been repossessed. With many of the business ventures, Mr. Gold took no salary or payment for the services provided. Mr. Gold lost his own money to the same extent as anyone else.”

But the Friedebergs don’t see it that way. They said Gold took their money and the loss has changed their lives dramatically.

“175-thousand was definitely retirement funds, to live on,” said Joelle Friedeberg, “So, we’re concerned about the future.”

Monica Feiss said she feels that Richard Gold duped the religious community at Chabad Ft. Lauderdale and preyed on their willingness to help people in need.

“We try and do good things,” Feiss said. “We try and forgive and this guy took advantage of that.”