An insurance company is accusing the owner of a Buchanan woman-owned construction company of embezzling funds and falsely blaming her estranged husband for the shortfalls.
Hudson Insurance Co., Manhattan, is demanding that Laura Marcela Pignataro not be allowed to discharge her debts in bankruptcy court, in an adversary proceeding filed Jan. 16 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, White Plains, because she stole funds.
Laura Pignataro, of Croton-on-Hudson, founded Casabella Contracting of NY Inc. in 2011. As a certified woman-owned-enterprise, she won several state and federal subcontracts.
From 2019 to 2020, Hudson issued nearly $7.9 million in performance and payment bonds on behalf of Casabella for three projects: Lehman College fuel tank room and plaza; Mount Pleasant water main extension; and a new fire station in  Warwick, Orange County.
The bonds guaranteed that companies providing materials and labor to Casabella would be paid. Casabella, in turn, pledged to pay Hudson for losses and expenses incurred from Casabella’s suppliers.
Hudson provided the performance bonds, according to its complaint, based on Casabella financial records that showed a successful business.
But in mid-2021, Pignataro asked Hudson for assistance because Casabella was experiencing financial difficulties. Hudson says it helped cover the payroll and union benefits because they would become its obligations if Casabella failed.
Hudson immediately began receiving demands for performance bonds payments from suppliers on the Lehman College and Warwick projects, according to the complaint, who claimed that Casabella had not paid them.
In 2022, Casabella, and then Pignataro, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Casabella declared $1.6 million in assets and $4 million in liabilities. Pignataro estimated $330,700 in assets and $2 million in liabilities.
She blamed the financial problems on her husband, Frank Pignataro, of Cortlandt Manor, who had filed for divorce in 2021 and who served as Casabella’s court-appointed receiver for nine months.
Hudson found Frank Pignataro’s story more credible.
He has testified under oath that when he went to Casabella’s office to retrieve financial information, file cabinets were missing, computers were gone, a safe that had money had been removed.
He told Hudson that Casabella should have had adequate funds to pay its obligations, according to the complaint. The company was collecting payments in a timely manner, and it had also received more than $2.7 million in federal Paycheck Protection Program loans.
He said his wife, who was “supposed to be there to help me figure everything out … just disappeared and she wasn’t there no more.”
Hudson alleges that Laura Pignataro also made false statements on bankruptcy declarations, implying, for instance, that 13 lawsuits filed against Casabella resulted from acts or omissions by her husband. But Hudson says the lawsuits were based on failures to pay for labor and materials before Frank Pignataro was appointed receiver.
“These statements,” Hudson claims, “are intended to conceal that the true reason for Casabella’s failure was the debtor’s (Laura Pignataro) defalcation.”
Hudson has submitted a claim for nearly $3.7 million in Pignataro’s bankruptcy case that it says may not be discharged.
Laura Pignataro’s bankruptcy attorney, Anne Penachio, did not reply to a message asking for her client’s responses to the allegations.
