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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
CONTACT: Erin Duggan |
DISTRICT ATTORNEY VANCE ANNOUNCES INDICTMENT OF PROPERTY MANAGER, MANAGEMENT COMPANY Defendant Used His Company to Steal More Than $2.1 Million From 13 Properties |
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., today announced the indictment of a property manager for stealing more than $2.1 million from 13 properties, primarily residential buildings in lower Manhattan. RICHARD BASSIK, 67, and his management company, DOWNTOWN PROPERTIES INC., have been indicted for Scheme to Defraud, Grand Larceny, and Falsifying Business Records. [1] The crimes charged in the indictment occurred between January 2005 and August 2009. According to documents filed in court, BASSIK, through DOWNTOWN PROPERTIES INC., was the property manager for the buildings and was responsible for the day-to-day operations, including ensuring that common charges, maintenance fees and commercial property rents were collected, that property taxes were paid, and that each building was in good repair. In some cases, he was also directed to invest excess building money in certificates of deposit (“CDs”) for safekeeping. Most of the money — more than $1.7 million — was taken in the form of wrongfully-issued checks, cash withdrawals, and the diversion of CD funds. BASSIK outsourced the actual bookkeeping functions and management of the financial records to an unrelated accounting company, which collected the revenue and paid the bills for the various buildings, according to documents filed in court. BASSIK exploited this bookkeeping arrangement to successfully conceal his thefts for at least four years. On several occasions, BASSIK instructed the outside accounting company to issue a large check in the name of one of the buildings he managed, allegedly to transfer the funds to a “reserve account” for that building. Once BASSIK had the check in hand, he simply opened a new bank account in the name of the building with himself as the sole signatory on the account. He then proceeded to drain the account, transferring the money to other accounts that he controlled, and spent the money. On one occasion, BASSIK used $370,000, which was part of a “reserve account” check, to pay restitution owed by his step-daughter and her husband as part of their sentence in an unrelated Suffolk County criminal case. BASSIK also accomplished his thefts by submitting false invoices to the outside accounting company in the name of “American Systems” or “The American Company” — both made-up company names — allegedly for some kind of insurance coverage for one of the buildings that he managed, according to documents filed in court. The invoices included a purported “policy number,” which turned out to be BASSIK’s personal American Express account number. These invoices were paid out of the buildings’ bank accounts. In one case, on the same date, BASSIK submitted invoices for two different buildings allegedly for “terrorism insurance.” In total, BASSIK used more than $400,000 of stolen money to pay his American Express bills. He used the stolen funds to pay for a variety of items, from fine jewelry and expensive clothing to parking garage fees and MetroCards. He bought airline tickets to the Caribbean, accommodations at the Pierre Hotel and the Ritz-Carlton, and groceries and gasoline. District Attorney Vance thanked Assistant District Attorney Leah Keith of the Special Prosecutions Bureau and Deputy Bureau Chief Judy Salwen, who are prosecuting the case under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney Thomas Wornom, Chief of the Special Prosecutions Bureau. The District Attorney thanked Supervising Account Investigator Peter Chicola of the District Attorney’s Financial Crimes Bureau, who assisted in the investigation, under the supervision of Bureau Chief Frank Puma and Principle Accountant Investigator Michael Vecchio. District Attorney Vance also thanked Detective Robert Cimino of the New York City Police Department’s Special Investigations Division, who assisted in the investigation. Defendant Information:
A class C felony is punishable by a sentence of up to 5 to 15 years in prison, a class D felony is punishable by up to 2 1/3 to 7 years in prison, and a class E felony is punishable by up to 1 1/3 to 4 years in prison. ### Additional news available at: www.manhattanda.org Follow us at twitter.com/ManhattanDA New York County District Attorney | duggane@dany.nyc.gov | 212-335-9400 [1] The charges contained in the criminal complaint are merely allegations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
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