REDINGTON SHORES, Fla. — A federal judge sentenced a Tampa Bay-area man to more than 17 years in prison for trying to hire a hitman to kill two witnesses against him in a fraud and money laundering case.
Alexander Leszczynski had previously been jailed pending trial for multiple counts of fraud. Court documents said he had filed a fraudulent warranty deed for a property transfer in Oct. 2020, using the name of a fake charity. When the two owners of the property sued him to correct the deed, Leszczynski began harassing them and their lawyer with abusive letters, e-mails and faxes.
In May 2022, Leszczynski was charged with deed fraud for his dealings with the two owners, along with additional fraud charges and multiple counts of money laundering. During his incarceration, he reportedly told a confidential informant that he would pay $45,000 to anyone willing to kill the two property owners who had sued him and would be witnesses against him in his fraud case.
The informant put Leszczynski in touch with an undercover FBI agent posing as a hitman. Leszczynski gave the agent the would-be victims' names, ages, physical descriptions, addresses, and other information, repeatedly making it clear that he wanted them both dead.
Leszczynski ultimately pleaded guilty in both of the cases against him in November 2022. He withdrew his guilty plea in the murder-for-hire case brought against him, only to plead guilty again in 2023. After his plea, authorities intercepted multiple letters from Leszczynski trying to coerce and threaten other people into coming forward and taking the blame for his crimes.
The U.S. district judge presiding over the case ordered that Leszczynski would serve two consecutive sentences of 17 years and six months in federal prison, one sentence per case.