DJ’s suicide reveals probe into Ponzi scheme
In the weeks after Robert J. Loftus plummeted to his death from a luxury New York City hotel, many of those closest to him learned he had a darker side than his charming smile let on.
Most people knew the Luzerne County resident as a smooth-talking DJ at 98.5 KRZ and Magic 93 who went on to a 17-year career as an account executive for WNEP-TV. Nights and weekends, the married father of two young daughters worked freelance gigs as a wedding and event DJ.
But a flurry of lawsuits filed in the final years of his life exposes Loftus’ secret: For years, he ran a Ponzi scheme that bilked hundreds of thousands of dollars from people who considered him a friend, according to a prosecutor.
In response to inquiries by The Citizens’ Voice, Luzerne County District Attorney Sam Sanguedolce said the scheme duped his victims out of close to $1 million to feed a costly gambling habit. Nearly a dozen victims spanning at least five years are known, he said.
In many cases, Loftus offered the victims unrealistically high interest rates — 20% or 25% — on short-term loans that he never repaid.
“It was an investment scheme, really,” Sanguedolce said. “He would take that money and sometimes squander it at the casino. Sometimes he would use it if he got sued to pay somebody partially back to make it look like they were getting a return. Most of them didn’t get any money back. And I think it was like the closer he was to the person, the more likely he could talk them out of demanding any money.”
One woman, Wilkes-Barre resident Carol Sobolewski, took to social media with a since-deleted Facebook post after the death identifying herself as a victim.
“He deceived many including myself and my friends,” she wrote. “He used his children to gain our trust. His. Children. Law enforcement was on his tail. He took the coward way out. Sorry for the tone but I and others are suffering and will continue to suffer from his greed.”
Reached by phone, Sobolewski declined to comment other than to express condolences to the Loftus family.
“I’m very sad that I’ve lost my friend,” she said. “I’m heartbroken about what he’s done. At this point I just want peace for his wife and girls.”
Sobolewski is not one of the people who sued Loftus in the final years of his life. But half a dozen lawsuits brought against him pull back the curtain on the extent of Loftus’ deception and the turmoil he left behind.
Mired in debt
In 2012, Loftus married his wife, whom he described on social media as “the love of my life.” The following year, they bought a spacious house on a half-acre lot in an affluent Rice Township development.
The well-maintained property belies the financial turmoil Loftus created.
Court records show Loftus, 49, had been amassing large debts for years, including an unpaid $25,000 personal loan he got from Discover Bank in February 2013.
In November 2014, Loftus sought Chapter 13 bankruptcy protection. Federal court records show that in addition to two car loans and a $429,900 mortgage, the Loftuses had outstanding credit card debt and personal loans totaling $358,279.
At the time, Loftus had two $1 million life insurance policies covering himself, the records show.
In 2019, the Dallas, Luzerne County-based The Meadows Nursing & Rehabilitation Center sued Loftus for an unpaid $91,317 tab for a nephew’s time in treatment.
With that action still pending, Loftus continued to borrow money from others, including at least four friends who loaned him large amounts of money at intervals in 2020.
Court records indicate the first to sign a promissory note that year was Lawrence Cohen of Delray Beach, Florida.
According to a lawsuit filed last year, Loftus told Cohen he was expecting a large inheritance but first needed a chunk of money to “pay off a person who would otherwise contest the will.” Cohen agreed to loan Loftus $20,000 and signed the note Feb. 14, 2020.
Loftus promised to repay Cohen $24,000 — a 20% interest rate — by April 15, 2020, but that date came and went without Loftus making good on his word.
Attempts to reach Cohen were unsuccessful and his attorney, John Lucas of the Slusser Law Firm, did not return a message seeking comment.
On July 6, 2020, David Shemo, a dentist and Loftus’ friend, agreed to lend him $100,000. Records show Loftus promised to repay the loan without interest by Aug. 31, 2020, and would also name Shemo as his life insurance beneficiary.
A lawsuit brought against Loftus and his wife alleges that they failed to repay the debt.
Roughly two months after collecting $100,000 from Shemo, Loftus got another loan for $82,000 from Modesto, California, resident Lisa Tabbit on Sept. 15, 2020, according to court records.
Loftus promised to repay Tabbit $102,500 — a 25% interest rate — by Nov. 15, 2020. When he failed to do so, Tabbit filed suit in June 2021.
A final lawsuit brought against Loftus alleges he borrowed $50,000 from North Ogden, Utah, resident Jeffrey J. Gaetano, who, like Loftus, is a broadcast veteran who does commercial radio voiceovers.
Loftus was supposed to repay Gaetano $60,000 by Sept. 10, 2020, but failed to do so.
A lawsuit naming Loftus as well as his wife says the promissory note lists Loftus’ family home as “an asset of defendants’ which plaintiffs could collect upon in the event of a default.”
Gaetano declined to comment, citing the pending lawsuit.
Court no-shows
Records show a consistent pattern of Loftus delaying and ignoring efforts by the courts to compel him to pay his debts.
On July 1, 2021, for instance, Loftus was scheduled to appear before an arbitrator hearing the case involving Cohen’s loan. Loftus failed to appear, prompting the arbitrator to award Cohen a default judgment of $25,000 plus court costs.
In Tabbit’s case, Loftus, who represented himself, “failed to cooperate” with requests for discovery items, Ashley A. Zingaretti of the Wilkes-Barre-based Comitz Law Firm wrote in court filings.
Loftus twice failed to show up for scheduled depositions, leading Zingaretti to the conclusion he had “completely and utterly refused to cooperate.”
In March, Tabbit flew in from California for a nonjury trial and showed up at the Luzerne County Courthouse only to learn Loftus had called out sick.
The trial was rescheduled for April and Tabbit again flew across the country to attend. Loftus once more failed to appear for the trial, which proceeded in his absence.
Luzerne County Judge Fred A. Pierantoni III awarded Tabbit a judgment of $102,500 plus interest and attorney fees for breach of contract. But court records show Loftus refused to cooperate with efforts to review his assets, ignoring attorneys’ questions and skipping out on two more depositions.
Reached by email, Zingaretti said Tabbit would be unable to comment on the pending litigation.
The law closes in
Around 1:40 a.m. Oct. 25, as law enforcement was preparing to search his home, Loftus plunged to his death from a 12th-floor balcony at the New York Athletic Club, an exclusive, invitation-only club in New York City.
Mark Desire, a spokesperson for the New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner, said Loftus died of multiple blunt trauma due to the fall. The manner of death was suicide.
Loftus’ death may have ended some of the legal troubles for his family, but not all. Two of the lawsuits — Shemo’s and Gaetano’s — name Loftus’ wife, Toni Loftus, as a defendant as well.
Shemo declined to comment on the matter other than to say he intended to drop his lawsuit as a result of Loftus’ death.
Gaetano’s lawsuit, however, has continued to move forward against Toni Loftus, prompting her to get an attorney to intervene.
In a recent motion for a protective order, Pittston attorney Thomas J. Killino wrote Robert Loftus never told his wife about the lawsuit and that when he filed a written answer to the complaint in September he forged her signature to make it appear as though she had responded as well.
Toni Loftus only learned she was being sued the day her husband died, Killino wrote.
The motion went on to note Toni Loftus had no knowledge of the agreement between her husband and Gaetano, nor does her name appear anywhere on the promissory note between them. As a result, Toni Loftus has no financial obligation to Gaetano, Killino wrote, describing the lawsuit’s perpetuation as “baseless” and “frivolous.”
The motion further alleged Zingaretti, who also represents Gaetano, has been “disseminating confidential information” to her mother, a hair stylist who spread the information to “the public at large.”
Robert Loftus’ former co-workers at WNEP-TV then began posting the information to Facebook, according to the motion. The filing includes a number of social media posts attached as exhibits, including a Facebook post by retired station meteorologist Noreen Clark before Loftus’ death.
“Loftus is in a Ponzi scheme,” Clark wrote. “He has borrowed $$$$$ from doctors around the area. He & wife are declaring bankruptcy. Drs are going to detectives, lawyers, etc. He is totally screwed! She’s in deep. They both could do prison time, especially him. He is quite the con-man.”
Clark declined to comment when contacted via social media and a manager at WNEP-TV did not return a message seeking comment.
Zingaretti, in court documents, denied ever disseminating confidential information as alleged in the motion. Killino recently withdrew the motion after the parties agreed to allow Toni Loftus to file her own response to the lawsuit.
Sanguedolce, the district attorney, said investigators found no link between Toni Loftus and the Ponzi scheme.
“She seemed genuinely surprised as we started closing in,” Sanguedolce said. “The result of our investigation was the remaining family members had no involvement — or knowledge, for that matter — right up until the end. My condolences go out to them for the additional suffering that this situation may bring them.”
The criminal investigation into the matter is now closed, he said.