News

Former Tri-State owner to fork over $3M

February 18, 2004

TRENTON, N.J. -- The former owner of an armored car service agreed to forfeit $3 million in assets after he was found guilty of wire and bank fraud, illegally structuring cash transactions and tax evasion.

According to an article on PressofAtlanticCity.com, Daniel A. Antolini, former owner of Executive Case Services, also faces between 78 and 97 months in prison for defrauding client banks of almost $3 million from 1995 to 1999. His wife, Peggy Lee Antolini, was acquitted of three counts of tax evasion, but the jury deadlocked on a count for 1996.

Sentencing for Daniel Antolini is scheduled for May 3, and a decision to try his wife for the 1996 count is pending.

Antolini also agreed to liquidate $800,000 held in a Merrill Lynch brokerage account held in his wife's name and to give a full accounting of additional assets that may be liquidated, including the couple's $2 million estate in Florida.

The seven-week trial also showed that Antolini evaded at least $368,120 in tax debt and structured 34 transactions in an effort to conceal $287,800 in personal bank deposits. The unreported income was deposited in bank and brokerage accounts, and was used to purchase a 33-foot boat and finance tuition at Villanova University for his child, according to the article.

The couple were the only two of 10 defendants not to plead guilty in a series of charges brought by the government since March 2001. All charges arose out of ATM-replenishing contracts with banks. The contracts called for replacing depleted ATM money cassettes with full cassettes. See related stories, "Former Tri-State owner faces more charges," "Tri-State accountant to serve 6 months for roll in theft."

The government charged that Antolini used the "float" between postings to finance business operations and then resorted to a combination of bank and wire fraud to conceal the increasing shortfall.