'House of Ponzi' is at 1220 Watchung Avenue. |
Most everybody knew yesterday's Hidden Plainfield was on Watchung Avenue, 1220 to be exact.
The Ponzi scheme involved an unregistered securities firm -- Serafino Holdings LLC -- whose owner, Anthony Lucchetto Jr. lived at the Plainfield address and was accused by the State of selling unregistered securities invested in construction loans.
Accused of a $15M fraud in 2009 (see AG's complaint here; Bloomberg News here), the case was finally settled recently (reported in the Ledger Wednesday, see here). Lucchetto, who no longer appears to live at the property, agreed to make $7.2 million in restitution to those who were scammed and to pay a $1 million civil penalty to the state.
Both Bloomberg News and the Huffington Post (see here) linked Lucchetto to a much larger, $400 million Ponzi scheme run by Nicholas Cosmo and centered in Long Island.
Lucchetto's defense lawyer, William Hood III, said at the time that Lucchetto was a victim of Cosmo's scam. The settlement suggest he was unable to prove that to the State's satisfaction.
Proceeds of the scam were evidently not spent on the property. |
Two construction permit stickers from 2008 show no evidence of work having been done. |
- Hidden Plainfield: "The Fall of the House of Ponzi" -- Includes all the comments on location.
- Lucchetto Accused: Attorney General | Ledger | Fraud Talk |
- Implicated in $400M Ponzi Scheme: "Bloomberg News" | "Huffington Post"
- Settlement Announced: "Plainfield investment firm to pay $8.25M in fraud settlement"
-- Dan Damon [follow]
2 comments:
Talk about brain freeze...once I saw the address I knew exactly which house it is. Drive by it weekly ! Good choice, nice back story.
This house had a sheet of plywood as it's sidewalk out front (no sidewalk existed for a few years.) Only recently when the street was repaved and curbs replaced did the city use remnant blue stone to put in a sidewalk. Wish I could get bluestone sidewalk for free! Looks good, and an improvement from plywood.
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