A father and son who live within a short walk of one another in Cross River and who have worked together for many years now have something else in common. They are suing each other for allegedly taking too much money out of four Katonah businesses.
John Giaccio accused his son, Richard J. Giaccio, of unjust enrichment May 12 in Westchester Supreme Court, just as Richard had alleged against his father on April 24.
They assert a variety of wrongdoings and cannot even agree on who owns the businesses.
Their disputes concern four enterprises based in Katonah: Giaccio Properties 123, PG Payments Inc., Prime Payments Inc. and RG National Business Services Inc. Giaccio Properties handles real estate. PG, Prime and RG are credit card and ATM payment process services.
John says in the most recent lawsuit that he and his son have been working together since 2007 and are 50-50 partners in all four businesses. He claims he has contributed more than $1.1 million and co-signed for $500,000 in business loans, but has received no salary or distributions for his efforts.
Beginning this past December, his son has frozen him out of the business, according to John’s complaint. He has been locked out of the office, denied access to business and tax records, denied use of credit cards and a vehicle. Employees have been told not to communicate with him and his son has defamed him to staff, business associates, bankers, suppliers, friends and acquaintances.
John alleges that his son has failed to maintain accurate business records, commingled business and personal assets, used business assets to buy real estate solely for his own benefit, paid personal expenses with company cash, and allowed loans to go into default.
Richard says in his lawsuit that he worked for his dad in a now-defunct contracting and real estate business from 2004 to 2008, and that his dad gave him money to invest in real estate.
In 2007, according to the complaint, Richard began working in the credit card payment processing industry.
In 2020, he formed PG, Prime and RG National to provide automatic teller machine and credit card services. In 2022, he formed Giaccio Properties 143 to buy a commercial real estate property in Katonah.
He claims he is sole owner of all four businesses and he also bought and rented real estate “solely in his own name.”
His father helped with bank deposits and withdrawals, real estate closings and renovations.
But in 2021, Richard alleges, his father became increasingly volatile and mistreated employees. That summer, John allegedly used a $100,000 business loan for his own benefit. Last fall, Richard says, his father withdrew large sums of money from business bank accounts for personal use.
Richard claims he had to take on additional debt because unauthorized withdrawals resulted in insufficient funds to pay for operating expenses and liabilities.
John is demanding $3 million and unspecified punitive damages from his son and an accounting of the enterprises.
Richard is demanding $318,900 from his father and a court order forbidding John from withdrawing funds from business accounts.
