LawFuel – Lawyer Newswire –
PREET BHARARA, the United States Attorney for the
Southern District of New York, JOSEPH M. DEMAREST, JR., the
Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Office of the
Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), PATRICIA J. HAYNES, the
Special Agent-in-Charge of the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal
Inspection Division (“IRS-CID”), and RONALD J. VERROCHIO, the
Inspector-in-Charge of the New York Office of the United States
Postal Inspection Service (“USPIS”), announced that CLYDE “PETER”
HALL, 70, of Manhattan, pleaded guilty this morning to charges
arising out of a scheme in which HALL conspired to file serial,
fraudulent bankruptcy petitions to evade eviction and remain in a
Manhattan apartment rent-free. HALL pleaded guilty today in
Manhattan federal court before United States District Judge
RICHARD J. SULLIVAN to one count of conspiring to commit
bankruptcy fraud. HALL’s wife, ANNE TORSELIUS HALL, 45, pleaded
guilty yesterday to a charge related to HALL’s bankruptcy fraud
scheme.
According to the Indictment to which HALL pleaded
guilty, other documents filed in connection with this case, and
statements made in court:
In April 2003, HALL, who decades ago played football
for the New York Giants, and his wife ANNE TORSELIUS HALL signed
a one-year lease for an apartment occupying the top three floors
of a five-story brownstone building on Manhattan’s Upper West
Side. The HALLs’ rent was $5,800 per month. In November 2003,
the HALLs stopped paying rent to the owner of the apartment (the
“Landlady”), and they refused to move out when the Lease expired
in May 2004. Between August 2004 and December 2004, and after
the Landlady successfully obtained an order for the HALLs’
eviction, CLYDE HALL filed or caused to be filed a series of
last-minute bankruptcy petitions in United States Bankruptcy
Court for the Southern District of New York, which contained
false representations, for the purpose of halting the eviction
proceeding and allowing CLYDE HALL and ANNE HALL to remain in the
apartment without paying rent.
The HALLs eventually moved out of the apartment in
early January 2004 and into an new, $9,500 per month apartment on
the Upper West Side. By that time, the HALLs owed the Landlady
approximately $81,200 in rent, which they never paid. At the
same time, CLYDE HALL caused a total of approximately $78,000 to
be paid to his new landlord for alterations to the new apartment
and to pre-pay a significant amount of the rent.
On April 20, 2009, CLYDE HALL pleaded guilty to wire
fraud charges arising from a separate scheme in which he peddled
bogus bank instruments and claimed to have access to high yield
investment programs in order to defraud investors of millions of
dollars.
On the conspiracy to commit bankruptcy fraud to which
HALL pleaded guilty today (Count Five of the Indictment), he
faces a maximum potential penalty of five years in prison and a
fine of $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss resulting from
the offense. The six wire fraud counts to which HALL pleaded
guilty in April each carry a maximum potential penalty of 20
years in prison and a fine of $250,000 or twice the gross gain or
loss derived from the offense. The total maximum possible term
of imprisonment is therefore 125 years.
Judge SULLIVAN remanded CLYDE HALL to prison following
his April guilty plea; he is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge
SULLIVAN on the charges to which he pleaded guilty in April and
today on February 19, 2010, at 11:00 a.m. ANNE HALL is scheduled
to be sentenced by Judge SULLIVAN on March 5, 2010, at 10:00 a.m.
Mr. BHARARA thanked the FBI, the IRS-CID, and USPIS for
their work in this investigation.
This prosecution is being handled by the Complex Frauds
Unit of the United States Attorney’s Office. Assistant United
States Attorney THOMAS G. A. BROWN is in charge of the
prosecution.
09-358 ###
