Albany Resident Pleads Guilty To Stealing $1.9 Million From Life-long Friends

Attorney General Spitzer today announced that an Albany County resident has pleaded guilty in Rensselaer County Court to three felonies stemming from his involvement in a phoney investment scheme in which he stole more than $1.9 million from his friends and acquaintances.

The defendant, Anthony Granito, 65, of Glenmont, pleaded guilty before Judge Patrick McGrath to two-counts of Grand Larceny in the Second Degree, a class "C" felony; and Scheme to Defraud in the First Degree, a class "E" felony.

"This case clearly demonstrates that financial fraud can occur on Main Street just as easily as on Wall Street," said Spitzer.

For a period of nine years starting in 1993, Granito was employed by the Cortland-based insurance agency of McNeil & Company. During the same period, the defendant was an active member of a number of regional and statewide associations dedicated to volunteer emergency services.

Beginning in 1998 Granito, while working at McNeil as an insurance agent, persuaded 16 people to invest more than $1.9 million in the fictitious Massachusetts Volunteer Fireman’s Fund and other fabricated funds. Granito told the investors that the funds would pay annual tax-free interest of up to 25 percent. He instructed his victims to make checks payable to him personally. In 2003, Granito declared bankruptcy and ultimately admitted that he failed to invest the clients’ money and that the funds he promoted were a fraud.

Granito will be sentenced on March 3, 2004.

The matter was prosecuted by Assistant Attorney General Richard Ernst of the Criminal Prosecutions Bureau. He was assisted by investigators Leslie Arp and Jon Wescott, and financial analyst Sondra Lavine of Spitzer’s Investigations Bureau. The case was referred to the Attorney General by the Cortland Police Department.