A flamboyant Manhattan fraudster tried to sway a juror during his trial by sending documents and a USB drive in a Louis Vuitton dust bag, prosecutors say.
Crooked brokerage boss Robert DePalo — who used dough swiped from duped investors to buy Bentleys, Rolexes and even a $22,000 lawn jockey — sent special deliveries to “Juror No. 6” twice during his trial, authorities say.
The juror told investigators that he received a UPS package at his home July 20 that contained a USB drive and a handwritten note marked with a rainbow and dove inside the designer dust bag.
“Do not pass this on,” the note said. “Please open but keep confidential.”
Then July 24, while the jury was deliberating, someone hand-delivered a package to the same juror containing several documents that purported to prove DePalo’s innocence.
“These are the true facts,” a note in the bundle read. “Please read before you vote. The TRURTH [sic] is essential.”
DePalo’s lawyer had already tried to admit the same papers into evidence at trial, according to a criminal complaint. But prosecutors at the time countered that they had been altered to favor DePalo, and Justice Juan Merchan barred their admission.
Investigators said a relative of DePalo later admitted that the defendant gave him the materials and directed him to have them sent to the juror.
“Defendant instructed him to mail the package, but to ensure that he didn’t do it himself,” according to the complaint.
The same relative was instructed to get the second batch of documents to the juror, too, prosecutors say.
DePalo, the former president of Pangaea Trading Partners, has been locked up on $3 million bond on fraud charges since his 2015 arrest.
According to prosecutors, he tapped an accomplice, Joshua Gladtke, as the company’s vice president and had him drum up investor marks in England.
“Gladtke served as ‘Solicitor-in-Chief’ and plied investors with a high pressure sales pitch laced with falsities and misrepresentations specifically designed to gain their trust and persuade them to invest in Pangaea,” prosecutor Jose Fanjul said.
DePalo, 63, of Nassau County, transferred a portion of the funds to Gladtke but siphoned most of the money to paint the town red from July 2010 to December 2014, according to court papers.
He was charged with bilking investors out of $6.5 million and convicted in Manhattan Supreme Court last month — despite his alleged plot to sway the juror and sabotage his case.
DePalo faces up to 25 years in prison when sentenced in September. Of course, he also could face another year in jail — after he was hit with a new jury-tampering rap last month.
His lawyer, Avi Moskowitz, declined to comment.
