Lenny Roitman was held in a Palm Beach County Jail in lieu of $30,000 bond.
By Michael Lewis
FrontRowSoccer.com Editor
Lenny Roitman, former assistant coach of the U.S. men’s national team who also directed the Brooklyn College men’s squad and New York Centaurs, has been arrested after he was accused of using more than $63,000 in fake coupons.
Roitman, 69, who lives in Delray Beach, Fla. allegedly worked with a B.J.’s Wholesale employee on a coupon scam in a self-checkout lane for several months, according to several reports out of Florida.
According to BocaNewsNow.com, Roitman is being held in the Palm Beach County Jail in lieu of $30,000 bond.
Roitman was arrested on May 4, according to www.PalmBeachArrests.com.
In November 2022, Roitman reportedly asked for help when he had problems using the self-checkout lane at the store. Justice Buonsante, a store employee allegedly used a “Type B Coupon Key” code to help Roitman. According to BocaNewsNow.com, the code apparently permits any coupon value to be entered.
During his trips to the store, Roitman sought Buonsante, the website reported. Police reports said that Buonsante, who also was arrested, and that Roitman made 79 transactions, bilking B.J.’s for more than $63,000. According to police reports, Roitman paid $3.11 for $1,208 in merchandise.
Roitman, who earned a Master’s degree in athletic administration, was Brooklyn College’s director of athletics and men’s soccer coach from August 1985 to August 1992. He was director of coaching at the Met Oval Academy from November 2010 to July 2013.
This is Len Roitman’s mug shot.
In the Centaurs’ ill-fated inaugural 1995 season in the A-League, Roitman was the team’s original coach, but was replaced midway through the campaign after the squad stumbled early on and never lived up to its hype or expectations.
Under then head coach Lothar Osiander, Roitman was an assistant coach of the U.S. Under-23 team that qualified for the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul.
Roitman also was part of the beginning of the process that pointed the U.S. men’s national team to qualify for the 1990 World Cup.
When the U.S. recorded a 3-0 win over Canada to move to the final round of Olympic qualifying, after dropping the first match of the total goals series, 2-0, Roitman told The New York Times in its June 1, 1987 edition: “It was a brilliant exhibition of a total team effort and outstanding goal scoring. We were down, 2-0, after the first game and taken for dead. But we got them to the trenches, fought hard and won the war.”
When the Americans booked a spot in the 1998 Seoul Olympics with two games remaining in the Concacaf competition, Roitman told Soccer Week in its May 19, 1988 edition: “Normally, the United States is in a position where we are always under pressure to come up with a win or a tie and we almost always fail.”
Not that time.
Here is a link to the original story:
B.J.’s Wholesale Scam: Customer Accused Of Using $60k In Fake Coupons
