Courtesy Photo
Franklin Marone
By Forum Staff
A Little Neck con man was recently convicted for multiple schemes to defraud—including falsifying financial disclosures to avoid paying restitution to victims from a $5.4 million securities fraud scheme in which he was previously convicted, and stealing over $360,000 from his now 89-year-old mother, multiple ex-girlfriends, and a military veteran, according to State Attorney General Barbara Underwood.
Franklin Marone’s combined sentencings in upstate Greene County Court and Queens Supreme Court will result in a total state prison term of 10 1/3 to 29 years. Marone was also ordered to make reparations in excess of $1.5 million, Underwood noted.
Marone was sentenced last week in Greene County to 2 to 4 years in prison for submitting fraudulent financial disclosures to conceal his assets from the court in order to avoid paying restitution to the victims of his $5.4 million securities fraud scheme for which he was convicted in 2004. Last month, Marone was resentenced to 8 1/3 to 25 years for willfully failing to pay restitution—a violation of the terms of his prior 2004 sentence.
According to statements made at sentencing, over the past two decades, Marone financially exploited more than 30 victims. Prosecutors described Marone as a “charismatic predator” who befriended others and then used them for financial gain. Instead of making meaningful efforts to repay his prior victims, Marone continued to defraud additional victims, and then deliberately concealed his ill-gotten gains from the court.
Between November 1998 and January 2004, Marone, a former stockbroker, targeted his fellow members of the ski patrol at a Catskills mountain resort and fraudulently solicited them to invest more than $5.4 million in a series of fictitious equity funds that he dubbed “Patrollers Capital Funds.” In furtherance of his scheme, Marone created fraudulent stock certificates, prepared phony account statements, and sent emails to his victims touting the performance of the phony funds. In reality, all of the investors’ money was deposited directly into Marone’s personal accounts.
On June 22, 2004, Marone was convicted in Greene County Court of two counts of first-degree grand larceny and one count of scheme to defraud in the first degree for perpetrating a massive investment fraud scheme. Marone was sentenced to 6 to 18 years in state prison and ordered to pay over $4.6 million in restitution to his victims.
On June 11, 2018, a restitution hearing was conducted, resulting in a finding that Marone had willfully failed to pay restitution to his 29 prior victims. The court heard evidence that Marone only paid a total of $15,000 restitution between 2013 and 2017, while simultaneously: receiving in excess of $55,000 in checks payable to himself or cashed on his accounts; spending over $64,000 in upgrades to Jeep Wranglers for customized oversized tires, wheels, a light bar, and other equipment; spending over $18,000 for a gym and spa membership; spending over $4,000 on a cruise; and pawning over $9,000 worth of property.
“After previously being convicted of fraud, the defendant has shown zeroremorse for his victims – and a complete disregard for the law,” Underwood said.
