Federal judge tells Mollicone to pay the IRS $30 million
6:16 PM Fri, Mar 20, 2009 | Permalink
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PROVIDENCE -- Bernard Madoff might be despised by New Yorkers, but it's Joseph Mollicone Jr. who makes Rhode Islanders go wild. And now a federal judge has given the IRS the go-ahead to collect $33 million in back taxes from the executive who helped trigger Rhode Island's banking crisis in the 1990s. U.S. District Judge William E. Smith is allowing the government to pursue unpaid taxes from Mollicone's days as the head of Heritage Loan & Investment Co., plus any interest accrued after last October. Smith's judgment would empower the tax officials to seize any assets held by Mollicone. The Department of Justice's Tax Division has not determined how it will proceed. The money would add to the $10 million-plus he owes the state after embezzling at least $12 million from Heritage. That bank's failure tipped the collapse of the Rhode Island Share and Deposit Indemnity Corporation in 1991 and the emergency closure of 44 other RISDIC-insured institutions.
Two years ago, Rhode Island Superior Court Magistrate Patricia Lynch Harwood ordered Mollicone to begin paying 10 percent of his gross income in restitution, or $2,500 annually based on his $25,000 salary at Exclusive Findings, a metal stamping company. Previously, he had paid $75 a month, or $900 a year. Mollicone said yesterday he did not know what the repercussions of Smith's ruling might be. "It's just so much," he said. "No one's offering me big time jobs. I do the best I can." 
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Honestly, this is just unbelievable! How is Joe Mollicone going to come up with $30mil? Let's use some brains here, tell him he owes, say, $30K and let it go at that. The guy served his time; let's get on with our lives and let him get on with his.
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The IRS can take everything over about $170 a week from a single taxpayer for a tax lien.
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You know, I love this stuff. Where in blazes is Joe Mollicone supposed to get $30,000.00 never mind 30 million? What a waste of a courtroom!
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"Where in blazes is Joe Mollicone supposed to get $30,000.00 never mind 30 million?"
He embezzled that much, why shouldn't he pay back that much? Or are you saying that if you hide the money in a Swiss bank account or just blow it all on wine, fast cars, and women, that you shouldn't have to pay?
Of course, it is interesting that the courts are symbolically linking him and Madoff at this point. I assume they could have made this ruling five years ago. Or maybe the courts are just that slow?
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