LI Man Pleads Guilty To Stealing $400K+ From Legitimate Businesses: DA

MONTAUK, NY — A Montauk businessman pleaded guilty to grand larceny Tuesday, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said.

Mark Ripolone, 35, formerly of Montauk, pleaded guilty to five counts of grand larceny after stealing nearly $400,000 over a three-year period in a scheme to siphon monies from legitimate businesses, Tierney said.

Ripolone was the owner of a now defunct food delivery service called “123 Delivery,” as well as a beach service company named “Hampton Management Group, Inc.,” that specialized in providing luxury beach chair set-ups and decorations for special events, Tierney said. The businesses were located in Montauk and primarily did business during the busy summer months on the East End, he said.

According to court documents and the defendant’s admissions during his guilty plea allocution, between September 2018 and October 2021, Ripolone stole about $225,000 from several customers of “123 Delivery” after obtaining the bank account information and routing numbers of their accounts under the guise of conducting legitimate business affairs, Tierney said.

Ripolone then used his customers’ specific account information to make ACH withdrawals from their accounts that paid for his personal expenses, including credit card debts, a home mortgage payment, and Verizon phone bills, Tierney said.

In "another fraudulent scheme", between April and May 2020, Ripolone stole $160,000 from a payroll company with whom he had contracted to do payroll, the DA said.

He stole this money by having the payroll money transferred to his personal bank account when he did not have any funds available to reimburse the payroll company, Tierney said.

On Tuesday, Ripolone pleaded guilty before Supreme Court Justice John B. Collins to three counts of second-degree grand larceny, felonies; and two counts of third-degreee grand larceny, felonies, Tierney said.

Ripolone is expected to be sentenced to 840 hours of community service as an alternative to six
months in jail, followed by five years of probation, Tierney said.

As required by the conditions of his plea agreement, Ripolone must pay $143,379 in restitution to the victims by the sentencing date. If he fails to pay this restitution by the sentencing date, he is expected to be sentenced to two to six years of incarceration, Tierney said.

Ripolone’s next court date is December 19; he is represented by Jeremy Scileppi, who could not immediately be reached for comment.

"This defendant was a thief operating under the guise of an entrepreneur. Instead of conducting business with integrity and honesty, he stole money from his own customers to line his pockets," said Tierney. "Because of his greed, this defendant must now reimburse his victims, or go to prison."