DFS Arrests Two S. Fla. Agents in $1.2 M Ponzi Scheme

May 17, 2005

  • May 31, 2006 at 9:56 am
    S says:
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    Where can I find a picture of this Tom Masciarelli? What city did the trial take place? Would like to read newspaper reports–opinions from new sets of eyes. More should have been done to get money back, not a quick easy fix as sending them to jail. Must have been an election year in Florida!

  • May 31, 2006 at 10:35 am
    Dumb Founded says:
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    You got that right – Tom Galliger is running for Governor, he thinks he\’s Elliot Ness, he\’s arrested more than half of south Florida.

    Putting the in jail was just that, a quick fix and a hollow victory for the investors. They\’ll never get their money and these two guys won\’t get even a \”chance\” to pay back the money, or even a portion of of. they\’re willing to make an attempt at full restitution, but no one will give them the opportunity.

    They need a new trial, new judge, statements, witnesses, EVERYTHING. This judge had his mind made up from the get-go. Lumped the two together and said screw it. Gave the State Prosecutor 1 hour and 50 minutes on Masciarelli, 10 minutes on Patrarca. Got up, took off his robes and sentenced Patrarca the same as he did Masciarelli, never taking anything Patrarca had done for the good of the company into consideration.

    This whole thing is a mess. At the end of the sentencing, the legal staff were all in tears. Everyone was dumbfounded.

    What a hollow victory for the investors. They want their money, they didn\’t want jail time. The state convinced them that it would take too long for them to get their money and they threw in the towel.

  • May 31, 2006 at 10:46 am
    Carla says:
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    The state prosecuter paraded people too old to walk who didnt know which they wanted jail or restitution, both ..maybe, my money yes.. ummm what was the question? and some second rate bean counter sharon hudson wearing flip flops states that she\’s been counting pennies for 2 years, they did note that Petracca had paid over $100,000 back but it didn\’t matter, they also said only Petracca cooperated with the state while Tom did not, yeah someones trying to get elected to something.. that was a disgrace..

  • May 31, 2006 at 4:51 am
    Mis-Lead by State says:
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    I won, what exactly did I win? My family and I were in court, we won the case the prosecutor said, they went to jail. But now we aren\’t getting any money of our investment back. How was that a win? For the prosecutor I guess, he it\’s a notch on his belt for a win, but I can\’t pay my bills with that or leave anything to my grandchildren or buy a new car. I say let them out and let me start to pay us. I\’m not alone. We all want our money. the state prosecutors and investigators mislead us. If we won they said they would make restitution.

  • June 1, 2006 at 8:57 am
    Judge has his own issues! says:
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    You obviously were in the court room as was I. God Bless America – I think it should be more like God Bless the Victims and the One Guy that TRIED relentlessly to help pay them back.

    Judge Rapp, has his own rap-sheet, as he indicated at sentencing. Apparantly in 2003 he got some very bad press about accepting money from the family of someone who was to be sentenced for vehicular manslaughter where in a two year old child was killed. The night before sentencing he accepted $100,000. for the little boy\’s family and then only sentenced the man who was driving to two years in jail and the media had a feast with it, Judge Rapp being the target. That\’s why he made the statement about himself \”being known to go easy on people who come in with money\” and instead threw the book – actually, threw a stack of books at Steven and Tom.

    This was wrong! It was an injustice to the victims and it was an injustice to both defendants. (Although, I still have to say to be completely honest – Tom, does has that off shore account and if he would pay, to me is questionable, I don\’t know.) But I do know Steve and I know he would pay, he has ties to the community, a wife, a family, a reason to do the right thing. He was obviously brought up differently than his co-defendant. And for him to be treated thusly, was a tremendous injustice. The judge needs to be made aware of this and rectify this matter.

    Lets all pray the judge sees that he didn\’t get the wonderful press which he expected to be 100% in his favor for being so harsh and decide to do the right thing.

    We all need our money, we\’ve all earned it and deserve. Everyone deserves a second chance. I won\’t sneeze at getting my money back.

  • June 1, 2006 at 9:59 am
    Meagerly Informed says:
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    From what I understand if you go onto the website for the palm beach county sheriff\’s dept., pbso.org and click the quick links section, scroll down to the booking blotter and put his name in and then go back a couple of years, you\’ll get his picture and some information. Hope it helps, don\’t know why you\’d even want to bother, he\’s such a slime bucket.

    Crazy part, he thinks he\’s a ladies man. It\’s more like a ***** master. His women were all bought and paid for with Investor\’s money and they were all bleached blonde, skinny stipper looking dogs, like the dogs he bet on, ooops more more coincidence. You know how they say people look like the pets eventually, this guy liked to date them. He was big into one crack head last we knew.

    He was actually driving around in a brand new leased Lincoln for the past year while all this mess was going on. Big sport on someone else\’s money.

  • June 1, 2006 at 10:53 am
    S says:
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    Bunch of West Warwick monkeys? Are there more Masciarelli\’s and Petraca\’s?

  • June 1, 2006 at 11:31 am
    trying to make you learn says:
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    \”justice was served and restitution will follow\” – let\’s do some math here ok. They\’re both either close to or in their 50\’s, you add 25 years to that and you\’re going to come up with a number somewhere in the range of 75-80. And you/we will be dead probably, even them if they live that long…..so, just how is it that you THINK restituion will follow? I should wake up and smell the coffee! – What are you smoking?

    Having them out was the ONLY shot we had of getting our money back. A little at a time is 100% better than absolutely nothing.

    No I\’m not all that wealthy and cavalier, but when I witness what I did, I will say a travesty occurred in that court room last Friday. The state was so hell bent on \”winning\” and keeping the promises they had made to the victims that we\’ll put them in jail, they forgot to say – oh and by the way, of course if we do that, you won\’t be getting any of your money back.

    The people that were called to speak did all say, given the choice, they\’d prefer to get their money, but if they couldn\’t then they wanted jail time.

    Both were offering to pay back. Just give them a chance. All the investors were happy getting their interest payments until the state investigators came into our homes and said the company was questionable. Suddenly there was a run on the company and everyone wanted all of their money back immediately. Everyone seems to forget we all signed a 5 year agreement to keep our monies invested until that time.

  • June 1, 2006 at 11:48 am
    A says:
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    The founder and former chairman of collapsed conglomerate Daewoo was sentenced to 10 years in prison Tuesday on charges including embezzlement and accounting fraud. 10 years and he has to pay back $10,000: He stole 2.3 TRILLION from investors..
    You idiots are still chanting God bless America?? For screwing you with your pants on ?? I refuse to get on board with a bunch of West Warwick monkeys, I want my money back, they said it would all be paid back, but you\’d all rather see them sit there unable to work.. I knew I signed that 5 yr contract, then I had these bumbling idiots working for the state sharon hudson and her boss padich,all they wanted was a conviction, and then this Rochelle lawyer had no clue, practically had to carry up the oldies who said yes i want my money.. but no one cared.. maybe that hudson will get a bonus for all those hours of counting.. was she using an abacus? So yes the state \”won\” we all lost out .. but keep cheering you brainless jerks.

  • June 1, 2006 at 3:30 am
    Disgusted with Dummies says:
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    Where are they now? Where they can\’t possibly pay anyone back anything! DUH!
    So the state won and we lost. Petrarca\’s family is without their husband and father and son and brother. Masciarelli is without his broads, booze and gambling.
    What\’s wrong with this picture?



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