A Staten Island man has plead guilty to second-degree grand larceny as a hate crime for running a sham insurance company that targeted elderly victims. Paul Simoneschi ran the sham insurance company in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Bay Ridge that was made famous by John Travolta in the 1977 movie “Saturday Night Fever.” “In addition to the grand larceny charge, Simoneschi also pleaded guilty to first-degree scheme to defraud and first-degree money laundering.” He has agreed to repay $4.4 million in restitution to his victims and could face four to 12 years in prison. The scheme fell apart when one of Paul Simoneschi’s victims had noticed that $300,000 had been taken from his bank account and then alerted authorities about it. Elderly financial abuse is going to be an increasingly common problem in the future as more baby boomers enter into retirement.
See Nick Divito, 70-Year-Old’s Scam on Elderly Deemed Hate Crime, Courthouse News Service, January 20, 2016.
