Updated news on the Gambino, Genovese, Bonanno, Lucchese and Colombo Organized Crime Families of New York City.

Saturday, January 30, 2016

Former informant faces new allegations


A Glen Rock man who is awaiting sentencing for bilking upwards of $3 million from more than a dozen investors is at it again, federal authorities allege, using a phony alias to scam new victims.

Paul Mancuso (center) in court Dec. 2, 2004 with defense attorney Robert Galantucci (left), and Frank Lagano (right).
Paul Mancuso (center) in court Dec. 2, 2004 with defense attorney Robert Galantucci (left), and Frank Lagano (right).
  
The new allegations against Paul Mancuso, 49, were leveled in a letter that a federal prosecutor sent last week to U.S. District Judge William J. Martini in Newark requesting that his $250,000 bail be revoked and that he be detained pending sentencing.
“Despite having pled guilty [in September] to defrauding numerous victims over a three-year period of more than $3 million, Mancuso is continuing to hold himself out as a real estate entrepreneur — using a phony alias —  in a brazen attempt to lure additional victims into fraudulent real estate transactions,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Anthony J. Mahajan wrote in his letter to the judge.

Earlier this month, Mancuso, posing as Anthony Morino, a purported “administrator” of an estate in Tenafly, visited a potential victim to solicit a $30,000 investment “in a fraudulent real estate transaction,” Mahajan said.
Mancuso, who authorities say has ties to organized crime, allegedly claimed the estate was being developed into condominiums and other real estate projects with an overall value of $8.8 million, but that he had exclusive rights to offer the property for $5.5 million, the prosecutor said.
The $30,000 investment was solicited to purportedly cover the remaining cost of engineering plans. Mancuso also asked the victim to provide him with the names of other potential investors, Mahajan said.
When the victim responded that he was going to investigate who, in fact, was listed as the administrator, Mancuso changed his story, admitting he was not the administrator but insisting he held the exclusive offering rights, the prosecutor said. The victim did not make any payments to Mancuso.
The incident shows that Mancuso “continues to commit the very same type of frauds to which he pleaded guilty just four months ago,” and that he should be jailed pending his sentencing, Mahajan said.
Martini was expected to conduct a hearing on the request on Wednesday.
When he pleaded guilty in September to a single count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, Mancuso admitted that he conspired with Pasquale Stiso, 53, a disbarred New York lawyer, to defraud 15 victims of $3.4 million, often by getting them to invest in projects that did not exist or in which they had no actual involvement.
Authorities said he promised unsuspecting clients lucrative returns on investments including a casino on “the last oceanfront property in Atlantic City,” a pizzeria in the Bahamas and a Florida apartment community.
Court records show Mancuso was a confidential informant for the FBI in Newark from 2008 until 2011, when the FBI terminated the relationship because it became aware of his illegal activities.
In a letter to the judge last year, prosecutors provided details about Mancuso’s connections to organized crime, noting that he had ties to the Bonanno crime family of La Cosa Nostra, one of the five New York families, and that he was intercepted on wiretaps speaking with a member of the Bonanno mob on multiple occasions.
Mancuso’s attorney, Stacy Biancamano, could not be immediately reached for comment Tuesday.

 http://www.northjersey.com/news/new-allegations-are-leveled-against-glen-rock-man-who-has-admitted-bilking-investors-1.1499164


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