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).
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.
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