40-year fugitive to serve his time

Sentenced to 10 years in the 1960s, he jumped bail.

By KEVIN GRAHAM, Times Staff Writer
Published November 16, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT Adjmi, now 71, was 28 when he vanished.

TAMPA - Joseph Adjmi must serve a year and a day behind bars for jumping bail on a 10-year prison sentence and spending more than four decades on the lam, a federal judge ordered Thursday.

U.S. District Judge Susan Bucklew said the sentence can run concurrent with the one he received - but never served - in his 1965 case.

Adjmi, now 71, was 28 when he vanished. He spent most of his life living in Europe and turned up two years ago in Cuba. Authorities there arrested him on suspicion of carrying a false Israeli passport and put him in prison.

He was extradited to the United States earlier this year. He pleaded guilty in August in Tampa federal court to the bail jumping charge.

In 1960, Adjmi, along with his father Leon and brother Charles, was indicted on insurance fraud charges related to a fire at the family's store, where they sold paintings and vases. Authorities later added the mail fraud charges, accusing the men of using the Postal Service to obtain fraudulent insurance payments.

While the charges were originally filed in Miami, the Adjmis' case was moved to Tampa because of heavy publicity.

On Nov. 1, 1963, a Tampa federal jury convicted the three men of mail fraud, and on April 27, 1964, Leon and Joseph were convicted of additional mail fraud and conspiracy charges.

Charles was acquitted in that case.

Leon and Joseph Adjmi disappeared together in 1965. Leon reportedly died in the early 1990s.

Kevin Graham can be reached at kgraham@sptimes.com or 813 226-3433.

[Last modified November 16, 2007, 00:58:18]