At Least Three Guns Sold by Feldman Were Recovered From or
Connected to Twin Cities Crime Scenes
U.S. Attorney Andrew M. Luger for the District of Minnesota
today announced a federal indictment charging Eitan Benjamin Feldman, 28, of
Saint Paul, Minnesota, for illegally dealing in firearms without a license and
lying on at least nine firearms transaction records. The defendant is expected to appear later
today before Magistrate Judge Mayeron in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis,
Minnesota.
“There is far too much gun violence in the Twin Cities,”
said U.S. Attorney Luger. “Violent
crimes involving guns are often committed by people who cannot legally obtain a
firearm, but they find a way. According
to today’s indictment, Feldman was one of those ways. This defendant engaged in the business of
dealing guns without a license. He
didn’t conduct background checks on the people to whom he sold the guns and at
least three of the guns were connected to Twin Cities crime scenes. Thanks to the dedicated special agents of the
ATF, Feldman today is in custody and there is one less backdoor through which
potential criminals can get a gun.”
“Today’s arrest should send a message to unlicensed firearm
dealers who put the public at risk each time they sell a firearm to a potential
criminal,” said Special Agent in Charge James Modzelewski of the Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ (ATF) St. Paul Field Division. “They are recklessly circumventing the
criminal background check system and it is a crime.”
According to the indictment and documents filed in court,
between January 2014 and January 2016, Feldman engaged in a regular pattern and
practice of unlawfully dealing in firearms without a license by repeatedly
purchasing firearms and offering them for resale within days of getting them. Feldman routinely purchased firearms offered
by out-of-state Federal Firearms Licensees (FFLs) through websites such as
gunbroker.com, an online firearms auction site.
Feldman arranged to have the firearms transferred to L.E. Gun Sales, a FFL
in Minnesota, where he received and took possession of the guns after
completing and signing the appropriate documentation and submitting to a
National Instant Criminal Background System (NICS) check.
According to the indictment and documents filed in court,
during the same time period, Feldman regularly listed and offered the same
firearms for sale – often at a higher price than what he paid – on
armslist.com, a website that allows individuals to list firearms for sale. Of the 41 guns Feldman purchased and re-sold
during this time, the average time he actually possessed a gun before offering
it for resale was only nine days.
According to the indictment and documents filed in court,
Feldman would sometimes include on his for-sale listings on armslist.com a
false story indicating that he had actually owned a particular firearm for much
longer than he had or concoct a reason why he was then selling the gun. For example, on one listing for a 20-guage
pump-action shotgun that Feldman had possessed for only two days before listing
on armslist.com, Feldman wrote that he, “is a gun collector, has had the
shotgun for two years, never shot it.”
On another listing for a .38 caliber handgun that he had possessed for
only seven days before listing for resale, Feldman wrote, “bought a couple of
years ago but only taken to the range a few times.” In yet another listing for a semiautomatic
9mm carbine rifle that he had possessed for only six days, Feldman claimed that
the rifle had been “sitting in [his] closet for a few months” and that he had
not fired it for about four months.
According to the indictment and documents filed in court, in
July 2015, an ATF Special Agent told Feldman that some of the firearms he had
received at L.E. Gun Sales and subsequently sold, had been linked to crime
scenes within days of Feldman taking possession of and selling the guns.
According to the indictment and documents filed in court, on
April 26, 2015, the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) recovered a loaded
Ruger .380 pistol when responding to a gun-pointing assault. The weapon was submitted for National
Integrated Ballistics Information Network (NIBIN) analysis, which showed that
the weapon had also been used on March 19, 2015, in a shots-fired incident from
which MPD recovered two spent shell casings.
Feldman had purchased this same weapon on March 12, 2015, only seven days
before the shots-fired incident and 45 days before it was recovered from the
gun-pointing crime scene.
According to the indictment and documents filed in court, on
May 28, 2015, MPD responded to a narcotics call, during which they recovered a
Bersa Thunder .380. This same gun had
been purchased by Feldman 18 days earlier on May 10, 2015.
According to the indictment and documents filed in court, on
Aug. 25, 2015, Bloomington Police (BPD) identified and stopped several vehicles
involved in the transport of at least 50 pounds of marijuana from California to
Minnesota. In one of the vehicles, BPD
officers recovered a backpack containing two loaded handguns, one of which was
a Taurus .38-caliber revolver. One of
the suspects admitted that both guns belonged to him and that he had bought the
Taurus revolver from a private seller in Minneapolis. That same gun was purchased only three months
earlier by Feldman on May 10, 2015.
According to the indictment and documents filed in court, on
July 17, 2015, ATF Special Agents executed a search warrant at Feldman’s home
in Saint Paul and seized five shotguns.
Feldman had completed the transfer of each shotgun at L.E. Gun Sales and
had listed and offered each shotgun for resale on armslist.com between two and
25 days of receiving them at L.E. Gun Sales.
ATF Special Agents also recovered three firearm bills of sale, showing
that Feldman had sold four firearms to three different individuals. Feldman had received the four firearms at
L.E. Gun Sales between three and 24 days before reselling them.
According to the indictment and documents filed in court,
during at least nine transactions at L.E. Gun Sales in which Feldman received
the four firearms seized during the search and 23 other firearms that he
offered for resale, he falsely represented his residential address on the Form
4473.
According to the indictment and documents filed in court, on
Oct. 2, 2015, ATF Special Agents served Feldman with a written Warning Notice
of Unlicensed Firearms Dealing in Violation of Federal Law, warning him that
his continuous and repetitive firearm-related activity appears to make him an
unlicensed “dealer in firearms” and that he should stop immediately or risk
criminal prosecution. Despite the
warning, Feldman continued his unlawful dealing in firearms on at least eight
more occasions.
According to the indictment and documents filed in court, on
Dec. 3, 2015, ATF Special Agents made an undercover purchase of a .38-caliber
revolver from Feldman, a gun that he had received 10 days prior. The undercover officer paid Feldman $260 in
the parking lot of a local shopping mall.
Feldman never sought to verify the identity of the purchaser, nor did he
make any effort to determine if the buyer was prohibited by law from purchasing
a firearm. Feldman conducted no
background check.
According to the indictment and documents filed in court, on
Jan. 21, 2016, ATF Special Agents made an undercover purchase of a Hi-Point 9mm
semiautomatic carbine rifle from Feldman, a gun that he had received seven days
prior. The undercover officer paid
Feldman $250 in the parking lot of a local shopping mall. Feldman never sought to verify the identity
of the purchaser, nor did he make any effort to determine if the buyer was
prohibited by law from purchasing a firearm.
Again, Feldman conducted no background check.
This case is the result of an investigation conducted by the
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Minneapolis Police
Department, Saint Paul Police Department and Bloomington Police Department.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Benjamin Bejar for the District of
Minnesota is prosecuting the case.
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