Two victims of a con-artist concierge who swindled them out of thousands of dollars faced down the fraudster in a Manhattan court Wednesday before a judge tossed him in prison for four to eight years.
Huckster Robert Giuliano, 38, scammed thousands of dollars from travelers by promising to book them into luxury hotels and to score hot tickets to exclusive events through his bogus company “Giuliano Group Concierge.”
He’d pocket the cash or check into the swanky hotels himself and let his victims pick up the tab.
“He made all the reservations for the airport and the hotel in Miami, but everything was fake,” said Manhattan nanny Juana Guadalupe Soto, 31, who gave Giuliano $3,000 to book the trip for her 29th birthday. “I felt so frustrated. I trusted him, he was like my friend.”
Another victim — a federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent — told Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Laura Ward that she gave Giuliano $6,200 from her retirement account after he convinced her he was an expert investor.
“Words cannot express how traumatic this experience has been for me,” she said. “Mr. Giuliano preyed on my kindness and my willingness to help.”
A regular guest at the W Hotel, Westin, Mercer Hotel, Four Points and St. Regis, the con man scammed dozens of victims in multiple states from 2008 to 2012, prosecutors said.
He promised he could get tickets to everything from the inaugural ball to Fashion Week.
In one incident, he used two victims’ credit cards to ring up $11,000 worth of room costs, food and drinks for himself.
When questioned about the charges, Giuliano told his marks that he had suffered major calamities — from getting kidnapped to learning that his wife had cancer.
Giuliano read a brief statement apologizing for his criminal conduct.
“I just hope everyone can find it in their hearts to forgive me,” he said. “I’ve let so many people down, including the victims in my case and my 7-year-old daughter.”
Ward wasn’t swayed by Giuliano’s proclamations of remorse.
“You have one person to blame and one person only,” she said sternly. “You took tremendous advantage of people, you manipulated people, you lied to people purely, simply and only to benefit yourself.”
As part of the plea deal, Giuliano copped to grand larceny, scheme to defraud, falsifying business records and identity theft last November.