Islanders caught in scam

Brooklyn man pleads not guilty

A man who lived on Shelter Island for a time but whose last known address was in Brooklyn has been indicted on charges of fleecing 13 Shelter Islanders out of about $200,000 in an investment scam, according to Town Police and the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office.

Joseph Casertano, 49, of East 3rd Street in Brooklyn, faces charges handed up by a grand jury this month of three counts of third degree grand larceny and four counts of first degree scheming to defraud.

He pleaded not guilty in County Court in Riverhead Tuesday and was expected to be released on $15,000 cash bail. A return date in court was set for June 8.

Mr. Casertano used money his victims had given him to invest in stocks “for everything but purchasing stocks,” the DA’s office alleged. “In fact, he used the monies for payment of personal bills and expenses.”

An investigation conducted over the past two years by Shelter Island Police Department’s Investigations Unit, headed by Det./Sgt. Jack Thilberg, and Det. Kevin Keyes of the DA’s office led to Mr. Casertano’s indictment. He turned himself in to the DA’s office this week after he learned of the case against him, Det./Sgt. Thilberg said Wednesday.

According to the DA’s office, Mr. Casertano provided his victims with account numbers that later proved to be fictitious.

Mr. Casertano preyed on people who were vulnerable and in some cases desperate, Det./Sgt. Thilberg said. In one case, Mr. Casertano told a parent who needed money for a child’s medical expenses that he could double their money in 30 days.

“That’s what made me so mad,” said Det./Sgt. Thilberg. He said he had “been hoping there would be money somewhere” that could be returned to the victims but he had found records only of “money going in and going out.”

Records show that a Joseph V. Casertano was censured and permanently barred by the New York Stock Exchange in 1996, when he was clerk on the floor, for misappropriating property belonging to an exchange member.