Ex-Montauk Man Mark Ripolone Sentenced to Prison for $400K Fraud
A former Montauk man has been sentenced to up to nine years in prison for using companies that he owned to steal nearly $400,000 from local businesses over a three-year span.
Suffolk County Judge John B. Collins sentenced Mark Ripolone on Dec. 2 to 3 to 9 years in New York State prison after he pleaded guilty on Oct. 24 to five counts of grand larceny. Four counts of identity theft were dropped. The 36-year-old man could have gotten 840 hours of community service as an alternative to six months in jail, followed by five years of probation if he paid $143,379 in restitution to the victims, but only made an initial $30,000 payment.
“Theft will not be tolerated in Suffolk County,” said Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney. “Instead of devoting his efforts to the honest repayment of his victims, this defendant just chose to steal more. He can now reflect on that choice in prison.”
Prosecutors said Ripolone, who was the owner of a now-defunct food delivery service called 123 Delivery, stole from his customers after obtaining their bank account information when they paid for his services from September 2018 through October 2021. He also owned Hampton Management Group Inc., which specialized in providing luxury beach chair set-ups and decorations for special events, through which he allegedly stole $160,000 from a payroll company, authorities said.
He used the stolen funds to pay his personal expenses, including credit card debts, a home mortgage payment and phone bill, according to investigators. He was also arrested twice in Westchester in October for stealing wallets out of the lockers of patrons at a local gym, pleaded guilty last month to two counts of petit larceny and was sentenced to six months in jail.
Collins also signed restitution judgement orders of $113,379 on behalf of the victims, East End Rotisserie, Paychex, Inc. and American Express.
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