International Law

The Truth about Frank Castaldi

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A reader comments about Frank Castaldi and his ponzi scheme.  This is important enough to be on the front page.

"THE TRUTH ABOUT FRANK CASTALDI AND HIS VICTIMS You can call us stupid, DO NOT call us greedy.

Let me tell you about the people who have been affected by this horrible, evil monster, the REAL story.

None of these people are "big shots" with huge fancy houses and huge fancy cars. These are regular folks who live in regular houses in regular neighborhoods.

We are people who simply trusted someone that we thought was really, really smart and knew a lot about investments.

Regular folks don't know about things like that, that's why we thought we were so lucky to find someone who knew so much about finances.

He always pointed out that this is the way people in the United States make money. You use your money to make money. At the time I thought, yes, you are exactly right.

Didn't most rich people get that way by investing? We NEVER expected to get rich, we just thought we had a great opportunity to make our lives a little easier.

You think we are stupid?

Let me tell you about this conman. We would go to his office and he would give us a kiss each and every time. He knew and asked about our kids each and every time. He was invited to our kids weddings, our anniversary and birthday parties. He was a family guy. He knew everyone's financial situations because he was the neighborhood tax guy. He did everyone's taxes in the neighborhood.

He approached us about this investment opportunity because he said he wanted to help us out because "we are like family", family helps family out. All along he was just helping himself. None of us knew anyone who knew anything about investing money.

What do you do, look in the yellow pages for a stranger? No, you only trust someone that you have known for years and years and already has many successful businesses.

Isn't that the smart thing to do? I can tell you first hand that just last month he encouraged and tried to personally get a home equity loan for someone who already had their house paid off.

The reason.... This persons' wife is very ill from cancer and he has been trying to stay home to take care of her.

Frank Castaldi personally knew that. He already had money from them because they cashed in a life insurance policy to give to him. Money was still very tight. Frank Castaldi told them that they should try to get this $150,000.00 mortgage because he would be able to pay them more each month in interest and that would really help them out, make their lives a little easier.

What a nice guy?!

This was just last month when he absolutely knew everything was about to explode.

Now these poor people don't even have enough money for groceries. Does that sound like a greedy person to you?

Does that sound like someone who just wanted to be rich and not have to work?

There are many, many more stories just like this.

So many people who have worked hard their whole lives gave him their money not to become millionaires but to make their senior years a little easier and hopefully have a little left for their kids.

I was personally in his office building the week before all this came out. There were at least 10 elderly men that came in within just a 20 minute timeframe.

They were so heartbroken that they couldn't even utter a sentence.

All they could say was "Frank" when they walked in the door. They not only had panic in their sad, sad, old eyes, many of them had tears.

Now, because he is being so wonderfully cooperative, he gets to go home without even paying $5.00 for bail. God only knows what he is saying to help himself out.

He lied so many times to us, I know he will lie in court. Don't be fooled by his demeanor or the gift he has to convince people that he is an innocent hard working man just trying to help people out.

All of us cannot be fools. He's really, really good at it.

Reports say that in 2008 alone he renewed notes for between 200 & 300 people who invested with him for a total of 68-69 million dollars.

Compared to most ponzi scams, that is not a whole lot of people for that huge amount of money. That just shows you how much he was trusted and yes, I hate to say it now, but even loved.

I cannot believe the things that even I am saying about him. This is so not the man that we thought we knew.

There is not a soul on this earth that most of these peope will ever trust again. It is so terribly sad.

You may notice that I am not signing my real name. Let me assure you that it is NOT because I am ashamed or embarrassed.

It is because I do not know what this evil little man is capable of. I refuse to lose anything more because of him.

I pray for all the other victims to please try to keep your lives going. Do not give him anything else. Do not give up on this new fight we have. Do not give up on humanity.

Lastly, all you people out there that are blogging, saying we deserve this and are just greedy..... Shame on you.

Tell that to just one of those poor 80 year old couples that will now die feeling like a stupid failure. That is the saddest part of all.

Signed, A honest victim of a terrible "human" being"

I never call the victims of a financial crime "greedy".  It is a simple solution to dismiss people's pain.

Full post as published by Misleading Advertising Law on February 07, 2009 (boomark / email).