The U.S. attorney for the District of Connecticut announced recently that Thomas Ragonese, 55, of Trumbull, pleaded guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge Donna F. Martinez in Hartford to a federal tax offense stemming from a scheme to defraud a Bridgeport-based residential property owner.
The case had already resulted in another guilty plea from Ragonese business associate Anthony Testo.
According to court documents and statements made in court, Testo and the business ACT Builders Inc. were contracted to serve as a property manager for an entity in Bridgeport that owned an apartment complex and several single-family and multifamily residences.
Testo”™s role as property manager included filling vacant rental units, setting rental amounts, collecting security deposits, collecting rent from tenants and depositing rental payments in the property owner”™s bank account. Testo also was required to submit to the property owner a monthly “rent roll,” which showed the occupancy of the rental units, the rent due and the rent payments collected.
Ragonese provided accounting services to Testo and ACT Builders and, at Testo”™s instruction, Ragonese prepared the rent rolls, according to prosecutors.
From approximately January 2007 to August 2010, Testo and ACT Builders, with Ragonese”™s assistance, defrauded the property owner by submitting fraudulent rent rolls that said certain rental units were vacant with no rent due when, in fact, the apartments were occupied and rent had been collected. The rent rolls also said the rent due and collected for certain rental units was lower than the amount that was actually collected.
Testo deposited rental income that was due to the property owner into both his personal bank account and the ACT Builders bank account.
Through this scheme, and also by submitting fraudulent subcontractor invoices to the property owner, Testo defrauded the property owner of at least $275,000.
For the 2007 through 2010 tax years, Ragonese prepared Testo”™s federal tax returns, which failed to report the rental income that Testo kept for his own use and benefit. This resulted in a tax loss to the Internal Revenue Service of $71,795.
Ragonese pleaded guilty to one count of aiding and assisting the preparation and filing of  a false tax return, an offense that carries a maximum term of imprisonment of three years.  He is scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Robert N. Chatigny on Oct. 2.
Testo pleaded guilty June 20 to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of assisting in the preparation and filing of a false tax return. He also admitted he failed to report his fraudulent income on his 2007 through 2010 personal federal income tax returns. In addition, the prosecutor’s statement said the business Act Builders pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
Testo and Act Builders are currently scheduled to be sentenced Sept 2.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Felice Duffy.
