By LAURA D’ANGELO & MICHELLE MARUS
The Long Island attorney indicted for his role in a $4.6 million Ponzi scheme that defrauded his own relatives was found not guilty of larceny but guilty of fraud in Manhattan Supreme Court on Tuesday.
The defendant, Robert Cassandro, was found not guiltyof grand larceny by guilty for scheming to defraud in the first degree by a jury that deliberated for six days.
The verdict came after a lengthy trial which grew out of Cassandro’s indictment charged with lying to his investors – family and friends – in order to convince them to invest their money into a business that builds single family homes on Long Island that started in 2002.
Cassandro promised his investors that their money would be secure but it turned out to be quite the opposite; he defrauded his friends and family by offering the same investment and loan scheme to other people in a classic Ponzi scaffold. Cassandro pocketed the money he got for a “slush fund” paying for the mortgage on his own house, his country club dues, and his personal credit cards.
After the verdict Judge Gregory Carro denied a prosecution request to raise the bail from $50,000 to $5 million.
When Cassandro was pronounced not guilty of the first charge, his family sounded audibly pleased but their enthusiasm soon faded when they heard the guilty verdict on the second charge.
Cassandro, looking distraught, immediately walked out of the room after hearing the verdict. The defendant, who has a wife and three children faced a possible 25-year prison term.
His sentencing was scheduled for July 21.
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