He promised guaranteed investment returns, high interest rates, and the velvet glove touch of business deals sealed by personal trust.
But the money disappeared, life savings evaporated overnight, and a long line of elderly victims lost everything they had.
One after the next, these investors took the witness stand today in Brooklyn federal court, breaking down in tears, sobbing and recounting the promises and reassurances given them by investment adviser Joseph Mazella – who’s been charged with fraud.
Gloria Migliore was one of those hardest hit.
Now 82, the widow explained how lost her husband more than three decades ago, and hoped to provide a steady stream of income to supplement her meager monthly Social Security checks.
Her husband’s premature death forced her to scrimp and work for many years – up to the age of 74 she was still employed at Costco, she said.
Migliore said she wanted to invest the nearly $69,000 left by her late husband – funds that she referred to as “blood money.”
“It was all I had,” she said.
But the elderly woman recalled how she was won over by Mazella’s repeated reassurances and smooth manner, so she invested the money with him.
“He told me he would treat me like his mother,” she said and broke down crying.
As she sobbed, Mazella sat motionless in the silent courtroom and showed not the slightest trace of emotion.
The founder of a Staten Island-based real estate and financial consulting company, Mazella is charged by Brooklyn federal prosecutors with securities fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering for operating a $12 million Ponzi scheme.
Regaining her composure, Migliore told the jury how Mazella had promised her a 12 percent annual interest rate – with monthly payments of $684.
In the beginning, things were fine. Checks arrived in express envelopes and Migliore said she was a satisfied investor.
As time passed, however, the monthly interest payments stopped arriving.
Then tragedy struck: Migliore’s adult daughter was diagnosed with cancer.
She again broke down as she sat in the witness stand and described the paralyzing fear that hit her when she realized she might lose her child.
Her financial distress increased as her daughter’s health deteriorated.
Expenditures rose and she was desperately in need of the money promised by Mazella.
“He knew my daughter was sick. Bills were piling up. I said, ‘I need the money. I can’t even buy food,'” Migliore recounted, explaining that she begged for some of the principal to be returned to her.
“He said, “I cannot do that.'”
The money was gone, she later discovered.
After finishing her testimony, Migliore told The Post outside the courtroom that Mazella had left her in dire financial circumstances.
“He ruined my life,” she said.
Mazella’s defense attorney, Ephraim Savitt, said the financial adviser is an honest man whose business faltered when the economic crisis hit back in 2008.