Colasounno, Monrovia’s Mini Madoff Sentenced
By Monrovia Weekly
Published: Thursday, September 3rd, 2009
On Friday, August 28, Mark Colasuonno, Monrovia’s own Mini Madoff was sentenced to four years in state prison. In addition, Judge Teri Schwartz of the Superior Court in Pasadena, ordered that he pay $3,222,535.91 in restitution to 19 of his victims. This plea bargain was reached with the approval of the Deputy D.A. Stephanie Buccat and Colasuonno’s attorney, Deputy Public Defender Sempda Kedia.
Charges were first filed against Colasuonno in July of 2008 on charges of embezzlement. In this case he was alleged to have embezzled more than $100,000 from Paige and Frank Lopez. As a result he was charged with the embezzlement in addition it was alleged that the amount of theft was 4329,166.14. This means that the charge was enhanced by the amount of the loss.
He posted bail on this charge and was released. When he appeared in court in August of this year for trial, he was rearrested on other counts. Colasuonno and booked for three new counts, 470(a) Forgery, 368(d) Fiduciary Abuse of an Elder, and 487(a) Grand Theft. The victim in this new case is John Greco, who was born in 1936. The amount alleged to have been stolen from Greco was almost $240,000.
In this case Colasuonno said he did not have sufficient funds to post bail and therefore remained in custody. Bail had been set at $307.000. He appeared in court on Thursday, August 27 and it appeared that a plea bargain had been reached, but the court trailed the matter to the next morning.
On that Friday Colasuonno changed his “not guilty” plea to “no contest” in return for a sentence that does include time in prison as well as restitution. Specifically he was order to pay restitution to the following victims and in the specific amounts stated.
- John Wou and Margaret Pappas $631,762.38
- Candace Harris $498,669.72
- Dennis Deitzel $397,000.00
- John Bruno $330,000.00
- John Greco $247,639.94
- Paige Lopez $164,583.07
- Frank Lopez $164,583.07
- Alick Barlow $156,140.73
- John Kimeck $125,000.00
- Vilma Higuera $110.000.00
- Debra Madalone $85,000.00
- Donna Baker $75,000.00
- Joylene Roberts $65,000.00
- Agnes Moreau $50,000.00
- Rosanna Juback $50,000.00
- David Deitzel $50,000.00
- Roberts Duncan $22,167.00
Unfortunately, it will be difficult for the victims to recoup their losses as Colasuonno has claimed that he has no funds. For this reason he did not post bail when he was arrested on the second case. In addition he claimed that he could not afford an attorney and the Public Defender’s Office was appointed to represent him.
This may not be the end of the list. As part of the plea bargain, Colasuonno agreed to make restitution to other victims who could prove their losses. This was done in consideration of the District’s Attorney’s Office filing no further charges against him for the same or other conduct arising out of his work as the Tax Doctor.
Colasuonno said that he was entering the plea because “I’ve been told it is in my best interest to do so.
On Thursday after the matter had been trailed to the next day, Colasuonno appeared to be served with court papers on another matter. The woman who served him had been with the supports of Colasuonno while his attorney was discussing the plea with Colasuonno’s supporters. The woman declined to give her name or state what documents she had given to him. However, Donna Baker, one of the victims said the woman told her that they were divorce papers.
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