The seething in-laws of a Ponzi-scheming lawyer who defrauded them and other investors out of more than $4.7 million, blasted him as a cruel sociopath who tore their family apart at his Manhattan sentencing Tuesday as his three children sobbed in the gallery.
Victim Jerry Perelmutter read a heart-wrenching statement to his once-beloved son-in-law Robert Cassandro, who averted his eyes.
“I thought of you as a son and there was always a strong feeling of trust,” he said as his eyes welled with tears.”Now my family is forever fractured. I lost my daughter…You were my greatest disappointment in 73 years of life.”
Last May a Manhattan jury convicted Cassandro, 49, of Woodbury , LI, of two counts of scheming to defraud but acquitted him of the top charge of grand larceny.
Prosecutors argued that he solicited nearly $11 million from some 30 friends and family purportedly to invest in Long Island construction projects.
Instead the crooked real estate lawyer pocketed most of the money, using it to pay for a race horse, a glass-enclosed gym, membership dues at an exclusive country club, $75,000 pool and two lavish bar and bat mitzvahs, prosecutors said.
You victimized people. They didn’t lose their money. You stole it. All to fuel some lifestyle that your kids didn’t need.
- Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Gregory Carro
“This defendant lived a life of privilege and the thing that led him to commit the crimes he committed was his own greed and lack of decency for anyone else,” said Assistant District Attorney Sarah Sacks.
The defense argued that he made the investments in good faith but was unable to pay back the funds when the market tanked in 2008.
As a result of the criminal case, Cassandro’s wife , Tracy, and their kids no longer speak to her side of the family.
Tracy’s stepmother, Jamie Sadock, slammed Cassandro for stealing their life’s savings.
“Jerry and I worked 50 years to give to our children and generations to come and it was not to be yours for the taking,” she shouted angrily as her stepdaughter glared at her from the other side of the courtroom gallery.
“You’re unscrupulous in your deviousness and all for what? So you could be perceived as highly successful.”
Cassandro took his sister-in-law Randy Nassau for her entire life savings of $50,000 and she broke down in sobs as she blasted him as a thieving monster.
“You’re a sociopath who only cares about himself,” she said. “You should be ashamed , Robert. After stealing our savings you stole something more important. I will never be able to forgive you.”
Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Gregory Carro dressed down the disgraced lawyer before sentencing him to the maximum of 1 1/3 to 4 years in prison.
“You victimized people. They didn’t lose their money. You stole it. All to fuel some lifestyle that your kids didn’t need,” the judge seethed. “If you had any moral fiber you would let your kids have a relationship with their family.”
He also ordered Cassandro to pay restitution of more than $5.8 million.