A disbarred New York attorney will spend more than three years in prison after being convicted on multiple charges stemming from his involvement in a ticket resale fraud scheme and a real estate investment fraud conspiracy that cheated multiple victims out of more than $3 million.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey, Pasquale Stiso, who is also known as “Pat Stiso,” was convicted of all 10 counts of a superseding indictment, which charged him with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, six substantive counts of wire fraud, and three counts of money laundering.
Per documents presented at Stiso’s trial, Stiso worked with Paul Mancuso, who presented himself as an investor, broker, and developer of various supposed investments.
Mancuso convinced several victims to fork over substantial investments for various projects that, in fact, either did not exist at all or in which Mancuso had no actual involvement.
According to court documents, Stiso told victim he was working with Mancuso on various projects.
Stiso and Mancuso falsely represented to some victims that they would purchase event tickets, such as tickets to New York Giants football games, New York Yankees playoff games, the Super Bowl, and other sporting events and concerts, at a lower or wholesale rate, and then resell them to members of the public at an inflated rate, thereby creating profits for their investors.
Additionally, Stiso and Mancuso falsely represented to victims that they were investors in a real estate development project in Valley Cottage, New York, and that the investors’ money would be used to purchase an interest in the property.
The real property interest would then be resold at an increased price, again, creating profits for their investors.
But in reality, Stiso and Mancuso did not buy tickets or real estate with their victims’ money.
Instead, they engaged in monetary transactions designed to funnel, and in many instances launder, the victims’ investments for their own benefit, including paying illegal gambling debts and money owed to loan sharks, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
According to court documents, Stiso and Mancuso were heavily involved in illegal gambling pursuits and both owed substantial sums of money to loan sharks and one of their bookmakers.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said that many of the victims of Stiso and Mancuso’s schemes lost” all or substantially all” of the money they invested with Mancuso and Stiso.
Many even lost all or most of their life savings, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
For his crimes, Stiso will spend 43 months in prison. Additionally, Stiso was sentenced to three years of supervised release and ordered to pay restitution of $460,000.
Mancuso previously pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiring with Stiso to commit wire fraud and awaits sentencing, the U.S. Attorney’s Office stated.
