Scammer draws up to 29 years in prison
A Queens man who scammed coworkers at the Windham Mountain ski resort and then concealed his assets to avoid paying restitution to them will spend the next 10-1/3 to 29 years behind bars, the state Attorney General’s Office said Tuesday. Franklin S. Marone, 55, was sentenced Tuesday by Judge Terry J. Wilhelm in Greene County Court to two to four years in state prison. That sentence will run consecutive to his June sentencing to 8-1/3 to 25 years in prison, resulting in the total term of 10 1/3 to 29 years of incarceration, according to the Attorney General’s Office.
The June sentence was partly the result of Marone submitting fraudulent financial disclosures in an attempt to conceal assets and avoid paying restitution for his $5.4 million securities fraud scheme, which dates to 2004.
Separately, in state Supreme Court in Queens on Tuesday, Marone pleaded guilty to stealing more than $360,000 from his 89-year old mother, multiple ex-girlfriends and a military veteran and was sentenced to two to four years, to run concurrent with his sentence for his Greene County convictions, according to Rachel Shippee, deputy press secretary for Attorney General Barbara D. Underwood.
Marone also has been ordered to make reparations in excess of $1.5 million.
“After previously being convicted of fraud, the defendant has shown zero remorse for his victims, and a complete disregard for the law,” Underwood said in a prepared statement.
According to statements made at his sentencing, over the past two decades, Marone “financially exploited over 30 victims, including, but not limited to, friends, co-workers, girlfriends, military veterans and his own mother,” the Attorney General’s Office said.
Prosecutors described Marone as a charismatic predator who befriended others and then used them for financial gain.