Questionable financial dealings
Murder-Suicide Lawyer May Have Run Ponzi Scheme, Attorney Says
The New York lawyer who killed his wife and two daughters and committed suicide in a Maryland hotel may have run a $20 million-plus Ponzi scheme, according to a lawyer who said his partner may have been a victim.
William Parente, 59, killed his wife, Betty, 58, and daughters Stephanie, 19, and Catherine, 11, then himself, at a Sheraton Hotel in Towson, Maryland, according to autopsy results released yesterday by the Baltimore County Police Department.
The FBI’s New York office is "investigating whether or not there are any financial improprieties connected with William Parente’s business interest," Jim Margolin, an FBI spokesman, said in a telephone interview. Police in Maryland said in a statement they also have learned of allegations the lawyer may have been involved in "questionable financial dealings."
Parente specialized in real estate and estate work, according to Craig Gardy, a lawyer at Bruce Montague & Partners in Bayside, New York. Parente represented Montague in what were supposed to be investments in notes from a commercial real estate asset needing short-term financing, Gardy said. He said the investments may be a Ponzi scheme. Montague lost more than $100,000 of his private funds, and other investors suggested there might be losses of more than $20 million, Gardy said.
'Unforgivable'
"Fortunately, Mr. Montague has a successful law practice so the money will be regained," Gardy said. "But what Mr. Parente did to his family is unforgivable."
The law office sent complaints on April 21 to New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and the Federal Bureau of Investigation and asked them to follow up, Gardy said.
Alex Detrick, a spokesman for Cuomo, said the office was reviewing a letter from Montague.
Parente checked into the Maryland hotel on April 15 with his wife and youngest daughter, and committed the murders in the morning and afternoon of April 19, according to police. Hotel workers found the bodies the next day.
"Autopsies have revealed that William killed his family by means of blunt force trauma and asphyxiation, and then took his own life by cutting himself," according to the police statement.
Stephanie Parente was a sophomore at nearby Loyola College in Maryland, where she was majoring in speech-language pathology and minoring in natural sciences, according to a statement from the school.
'Power of Evil'
"A tragedy such as this reminds us of the mystery and destructive power of evil in our world," Loyola’s president, the Rev. Brian Linnane, said in the statement. A memorial mass for Parente and her family was held April 21 at the school.
She volunteered in several organizations and was a coxswain for the men’s rowing team.
"I knew Steph as a friendly, happy and optimistic young athlete," crew coach Albert Ramirez said in the statement. "She was a coxswain on our novice team last year and she stayed through the toughest times as the frosh team broke down into just four men."
Parente’s campus adviser, Mark Osteen, described her as "a sweet and kind person and a hard-working student who always had a generous word for her peers."
She also had successfully applied to study in the fall at Newcastle University in England.
William Parente, who lived in Garden City, New York, had a law office on Lexington Avenue in Manhattan, according to the New York state Unified Court System directory. He had attended Brooklyn Law School.
Several Ponzi schemes have been uncovered since Bernard Madoff pleaded guilty in March to masterminding the largest investor fraud in history. Madoff defrauded investors of as much as $65 billion.
Ponzi schemes are named for 1920s financier Charles Ponzi. Money from new investors goes to pay off previous ones.
(Published by Bloomberg - April 23, 2009)