Long Island Ponzi schemer who fleeced cops, firefighters gets 2.5 years after cooperating with feds

Yahoo

20-03-2025

A Ponzi schemer's 'extraordinary' cooperation with authorities wasn't enough to spare him federal prison time, after one of his many victims spoke out in court about the enormous human cost of his multimillion-dollar scam.
Gregory Altieri, a former Long Island jewelry business owner, was sentenced to two and a half years behind bars Thursday, after he snared investors in Queens, Staten Island, Long Island and elsewhere into raising tens of millions to buy jewelry at closeout prices to resell for big profits.
He started the scheme in 2015. Two years later, he began pulling several active and retired cops and firefighters into his web through his relationship with a retired officer-turned-investor, according to court filings.
And though Altieri started buying jewelry at first, by May 2018 he was paying old investors with money from new ones. His scheme started teetering in September 2019, when he threw a dinner at Calogero's Restaurant in Garden City to calm about 150 worried investors. By January 2020, the house of cards came down, when he bounced $74 million in checks.
Altieri's lawyer, Edward Sapone, said his client came to him before federal authorities had an inkling of wrongdoing, to get ahead of any investigation and to 'do what's right.'
Over the next five years, Altieri cooperated with government investigations, including a probe into Long Island 'Lottery Lawyer' Jason Kurland, who is serving a 13-year sentence for fleecing Powerball and Mega Millions winners who trusted him to invest their jackpots. Kurland and his cohorts sunk tens of millions into Altieri's scheme.
'Lots of investigations were underway as a result of that [cooperation],' Sapone said. 'He wore wires… He placed, over the years, hundreds of phone calls.'
According to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission documents, his investors and lenders pumped at least $140 million into the scheme.
Sapone said that more than 92% of the victims' losses were recouped through Altieri's bankruptcy efforts.
'I know what I caused — grief, agony in people's lives,' Altieri told Brooklyn Federal Court Judge Brian Cogan. 'I can say I'm sorry a million times to people. I'm not sure it'll ever work…. This is a one-time mess-up of a lifetime, and all I want to do is make good.'
Victim Larry Pomerantz countered that Altieri had opened up about being a victim of a similar fraud scheme years earlier. He described how he witnessed Altieri's face flush red with anger when the scammer who victimized him walked into a Starbucks where they were getting coffee.
'It's so ironic that I witnessed with my own eyes the effect that experience had on him, considering how the next few years played out,' Pomerantz said. 'Did he think the best way to use his horrific life experience was to pay it forward and orchestrate his own crime?'
Pomerantz said his fellow victims suffered financial stress, emotional and physical strains and broken relationships. 'The real effects have been monumental,' he said. 'He never cared about the chaos he created. Zero empathy, no conscience.'
Citing bankruptcy documents, Pomerantz also pointed out that of roughly $28 million clawed back in losses, about $8 million went to fees and legal bills connected to Altieri's bankruptcy.
The judge said he had to weigh Altieri's lawyer's remarks, plus the 'tangible results' of the fraudster's cooperation, against the version of the defendant described by Pomerantz.
'When I look at the nature of this crime, it's pretty hardcore lack of empathy,' Cogan said. 'What we heard from Mr. Pomerantz is the collateral effects on the victims, and those are also very real.'
Altieri is scheduled to start his sentence on June 18.