by Lionel Bascom — June 13th, 2008 — No comments
The New York Daily News called him Limbo-loving con man Mario Mastellone.
The News reports that Mastellone “walked out of court Friday after getting 2-1/2 years in jail for stealing $1.1 million from a fund for 9/11 victims and defiantly announced: “I am a victim.”
Asked if he had any regrets about ripping off a fund designed to help those hurt in the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attack - or the families of the dead - the illiterate, unemployed painter replied: “None.”
Mastellone, 41, escaped the collapse of the north tower of the World Trade Center where he was a contract painter for the Port Authority.
He told officials of the Sept. 11 Victim Compensation Fund he was permanently disabled with a back injury and was incapable of performing even menial chores like mowing the lawn.
A month later, surveillance cameras caught him toting gallons of paint and hoisting them into the back of his minivan.
At a 2002 wedding reception, he was caught on tape ducking under a limbo pole and dancing to ’70s hits like “Stayin’ Alive.”
A video camera attached to a utility pole across from his East Windsor, N.J., home caught Mastellone shoveling snow off his silver Mercedes and red Mini Cooper after a 2005 snowstorm.”
His new home will be the joint where it takes a con to get inside.
10:58 PM in Uncategorized, World Trade Center, Ground Zero, Related Stories, Homeland Security