By Dan Murphy
Twenty-three years ago, while living in Mt. Vernon, I worked part-time on the campaign of businessman John Bosco, who wanted to become mayor. Bosco’s petitions were being challenged and we ended up in Westchester County Court. Our attorney for that case was Guy Parisi, who in 1995 was the “go-to” election law attorney for republican candidates seeking office.
Since I had worked as the petition collector and holder of every submitted sheet of signatures, I worked with Parisi in the courthouse as every signature was reviewed to determine its validity. I found Parisi to be capable and competent and respected in the courthouse, and in the end we won our case and Bosco was allowed on the ballot (only to lose in November to Ernie Davis).
So for me, and I’m sure for many Republicans in Westchester, it came as a shock that Guy Parisi was arrested by the FBI and charged with conspiracy and mail fraud as part of what the U.S. attorney claims was Parisi’s attempt to embezzle funds from a decedent’s estate for which he served as a court-appointed administrator. Parisi was arrested last week and was arraigned before U.S. District Judge Paul Davison.
U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said: “Guy Parisi, a Westchester attorney, allegedly embezzled funds from an estate which he was a court-appointed fiduciary. Parisi allegedly shirked his responsibilities to the estate in order to serve his own greed. Now he faces justice in a criminal court.”
Inspector-in-Charge Peter Rendina said Parisi allegedly took advantage of the trust given to him by his client, when instead of doing the right thing, he created a company to “greedily enrich himself” of fees he would not lawfully be entitled to receive. “Postal inspectors and their law enforcement partners uphold the truth and those who do not must face justice,” he said.
“Instead of protecting the interests of the estate, Mr. Parisi abused the trust placed in him by allegedly attempting to pocket millions of dollars meant for the beneficiaries by using a fictitious company,” added Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. “My office will continue to work with law enforcement across the state to protect unclaimed funds in our custody.”
The indictment alleges that Parisi was appointed administrator of the estate of a former resident of Mt. Vernon, in or about April 2017. His duties as administrator included collecting the assets of the estate. As an administrator, Parisi had a fiduciary duty to the estate and to the decedent’s son, the sole beneficiary of his father’s will.
Part of the estate included abandoned properties that had to be reclaimed from the comptroller’s office. Parisi allegedly secretly used an abandoned asset recovery service owned by his relative and that he formed that company (Stokes Asset Recovery Services) a few weeks before notifying the comptroller’s office, who oversees all unrecovered assets in New York State.
Parisi did not disclose, and actively concealed, that Stokes was owned by his relative, and that he and the relative had formed Stokes less than two weeks before he notified the comptroller of his retention of Stokes, as he was required to do under New York law, according to court documents. Parisi and the relative named Stokes after a Southampton street on which Parisi owned a waterfront vacation home. At the time he retained Stokes, Parisi knew that the estate’s assets held by the comptroller were worth several million dollars.
Parisi was interviewed by a postal inspector in or about November 2017. He falsely told the postal inspector he had worked with Stokes in the past and that Stokes’ fee was 5 percent of the value of the assets held by the comptroller.
Parisi, 71, of Rye, is charged with one count of conspiracy, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison; one count of mail fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison; and one count of making a false statement, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.
Parisi was appointed administrator of the estate in 2017. The criminal allegations against him are that he attempted to charge the estate a fee of 15 percent of the value of the properties held by the comptroller’s office and return them to the estate. Parisi was already collecting a fee for his work as administrator, and it appears that Parisi improperly and illegally attempted to “double dip” on this estate by collecting an additional 15 percent fee on the few million dollars of properties that needed to be returned by the comptroller’s office.
The indictment states that Parisi lives in Rye, and has a home in the Hamptons. So why did he attempt this alleged fraud? Did he need the money? Was it just simple greed? After 30 years of legal work in Westchester, was this foolish act worth ruining your reputation forever?
