Friends and acquaintances of Anthony F. Cutaia say they trusted him with their life savings because he portrayed himself as a mortgage expert and a religious man.
Aside from hosting “Talk About Mortgages and Real Estate” on the radio and television, Cutaia was a longtime member of St. Joan of Arc Catholic Church in
. He was a regular at Mass and took an active role in the parish’s Knights of Columbus men’s group.
Cutaia told his clients he was investing their money in various commercial real estate ventures, but federal prosecutors have accused him of defrauding clients by creating a Ponzi scheme.
“What he did to me, I don’t even have a word for,” said Phyllis Marullo, 80, a
resident who invested $200,000 with Cutaia. “I’m still in shock. I never, ever, ever suspected something like this could happen.”
Cutaia, 65, is set to go to trial Oct. 4 in federal court in West Palm Beach on charges of mail fraud, in connection with the Ponzi scheme. Until then, he remains free on a $10,000 bond. Neither he nor his attorney, Jonathan Friedman, of Fort Lauderdale, could be reached for comment, despite attempts by phone and email.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office, which declined comment because the investigation is continuing, hasn’t disclosed the number of investors or a dollar figure of how much they allegedly lost.
Phyllis Marullo and her husband, Anthony, have been married 56 years, and their home off Yamato Road is filled with family photos and religious relics. They said the money they invested with Cutaia was meant to bolster their nest egg, which they would someday give to their four children and their families.
The Marullos said they had no worries about investing with Cutaia because of his background in real estate and his standing at church. They knew his wife Susan was a reader at Mass and held leadership roles in Catholic organizations.
“I trusted him with my soul,” said Phyllis Marullo.
Anthony Marullo, 81, said he met Cutaia through the Knights of Columbus at St. Joan of Arc, where the couple have been parishioners for more than 40 years.
Anthony Marullo said Cutaia never spoke to him about money or investments. Because of his respect for Cutaia, Marullo said he approached him in 2004 about getting better returns on his money than at a credit union.
Cutaia said he could get an 8 percent return on deals to buy commercial properties and second mortgages on apartment buildings, Anthony Marullo remembers.
The Marullos said their interest payments arrived on time. When they stopped coming, Phyllis Marullo spoke to Cutaia at church.
“He gave me the kiss of peace,” she said. “I asked him about the money, and he said, ‘When things get better, I’ll pay everybody.'”
The Marullos said they later went to Cutaia’s
office. He wasn’t there, and the place was a mess, with papers scattered about and the phone ringing constantly, Phyllis Marullo said.
Cutaia no longer is associated with St. Joan of Arc, according to an assistant for church pastor Monsignor Michael D. McGraw.
Jim Anderson, of
, said he met Cutaia through Susan Cutaia. Anderson said he attends a different church but felt comfortable investing with Cutaia because of Susan Cutaia’s reputation in the community and Anthony Cutaia’s credentials as a mortgage specialist on TV and the radio.
Anderson wouldn’t say how much he invested but described it as a “sizable” sum he received from an inheritance.
Like the Marullos, Anderson said Anthony Cutaia sent interest payments before the money stopped coming. Anderson said he went to lunch with Cutaia, who said he couldn’t keep paying the money because the economy had soured.
“It’s hard to get over,” said Anderson, 66, who runs a business that sells cars to rental car companies nationwide. “But I have no choice.”
The alleged fraud took place from at least March 2003 to at least December 2006, though the exact dates are unknown, prosecutors say in court papers. They accuse Cutaia of investing “very little” of his clients’ money, and instead, using it to make Ponzi payments to pre-existing investors and to pay his own unspecified business and personal expenses.
Cutaia appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Linnea R. Johnson on June 6 and pleaded not guilty. Cutaia faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Anthony Cutaia, a father of four who moved to South Florida from Connecticut in 1991, filed for bankruptcy protection in May, records show. He listed a
address and assets of zero to $50,000 and liabilities of $500,000 to $1 million.
He also had filed for bankruptcy protection in 1994 and 2007, records show. Susan Cutaia filed in 1998 and 2009.
In the 2007 case, Anthony Cutaia’s efforts to be released from creditor claims were denied when the trustee objected to his selling a Rolex watch before it could have been sold to help pay creditors.
Another investor, Louis Lobron, said he never met Cutaia face to face. A resident of suburban Philadelphia, Lobron remembers listening to Cutaia’s syndicated radio show. Impressed, Lobron called Cutaia’s offices in 2005 asking about investment opportunities inFlorida.
Cutaia sent him a document outlining an investment in a South Florida medical office building, Lobron said. The document outlined the risks of investing with companies with little or no operating histories and promised investors an 8 percent annual return. Lobron said he gave $100,000 to Cutaia.
“At the time, he had a good reputation,” Lobron said. “There was no reason to think there was anything shady or underhanded about this.”
Lobron said he never received any payments and couldn’t get Cutaia on the phone to explain why. The building was sold in February 2007 at a foreclosure auction.
In a letter to Lobron and other investors less than a month later, Cutaia wrote: “I tried everything in my power to avert this event, but with the increase in interest rates and the decline of the real estate and commercial condo market we were not able to maintain our position in the property.”
Lobron, 68, who used to own coin-operated laundries, is retired now, living on a fixed income.
“That $100,000 would be manna from heaven for me right now,” he said.
Staff researcher Barbara Hijek contributed to this report.
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