A fraudster who spent years conning people and stealing $1.1 million in COVID funds to support his luxury lifestyle has been identified as he faces prison for his crimes.
Joey Cipolla drove a Lamborghini and a Bentley that were frequently left in the driveway of his 12,000-square-foot mansion in Bloomingdale, Illinois, an affluent area outside Chicago.
He had his own Cessna plane, which he could fly, and was known for speeding away thousands of dollars in casinos.
More than a legitimate businessman, Cipolla was an outright con artist and con artist throughout his adult life. He previously pleaded guilty to misleading people by selling luxury cars on eBay and using COVID funds to buy his house.
Now, federal prosecutors want to see him locked up for 10 years while they make their case for sentencing.
“He’s like a talented Mr. Ripley,” said Chicago restaurateur and victim Dion Antic. the chicago tribune. “He is an arch-criminal and this has been going on like this for years.”
A scammer who spent years scamming people and stealing $1 million in COVID funds to support his luxury lifestyle has been identified as Joey Cipolla.
Cipolla faces sentencing for several schemes, including fraudulently selling cars on eBay and taking $1 million in COVID funds to support his lifestyle.
Cipolla flaunted his lifestyle on social media. Now, prosecutors want him jailed for a decade for his scam.
Antic was referring to the 1999 movie about a con man when talking about Cipolla, who once gave him a fake check for $35,000 for a used Corvette.
Three years ago, Antic started a Facebook account called ‘Conned by Joey Cipolla’ as an outlet for his frustration which now has more than 100 followers. Since then, he and other Cipolla victims have formed lasting bonds through their shared experiences.
People in Antic’s scammed community say Cipolla’s sentence is just a fraction of what he deserves to be held accountable for.
In November, Cipolla pleaded guilty to his crimes. Prosecutors want him locked up for a decade. His defense asks for a seven-year sentence.
“It was a lifestyle, driven by unbridled greed,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy Chapman wrote in a recent court filing. “There is no solid reason to believe that Cipolla, once released, will renounce his life of fraud and pursue a legal path to acquire the necessities of life.”
According to his defense attorney, Cipolla has sobered up in jail awaiting trial and wants to change his life.
Cipolla’s five-bedroom, nine-bathroom home in Bloomingdale, Illinois, an affluent suburb of Chicago
Cippola shows off a plane and a Ferrari on his Instagram
Cipolla’s criminal record and the accusations against him are extensive.
In November, Cipolla pleaded guilty to his crimes. Prosecutors want him locked up for a decade. His defense is asking for a seven-year sentence.
In November, Cipolla pleaded guilty to his crimes. Prosecutors want him locked up for a decade. His defense is asking for a seven-year sentence.
The most serious incident that remains shrouded in mystery occurred in 2017, when Jeffery Charles Fox, 46, of Evanston, fell to his death 39 stories from the balcony of Cipolla’s Chicago apartment in a luxury building just a stone’s throw from the Lake Michigan.
Fox had been accused two years earlier of assaulting a woman who is now Cipolla’s wife.
Cipolla was not charged with any crime in that case. The Cook County medical examiner’s office ruled Fox’s death an accident.
In 2008, Cipolla had 15 convictions in four states, most for writing bad checks to purchase vehicles. After serving time in Illinois and Michigan, he was paroled in 2010, and in 2014, the court was no longer overseeing his release.
“By 2016 at the latest, he had returned to the relatively lower-paying business of defrauding people in individual vehicle sales,” U.S. Attorney Chapman wrote in a filing.
Chapman added that Cipolla falsified documents to obtain an FAA pilot’s license and then his plans turned to selling and leasing airplanes.
He created companies, including one that kept planes in hangars at the DuPage County Airport outside Chicago.
Cipolla also had a car business on eBay. He admitted to screwing over customers by illegally reducing the mileage of exotic vehicles he sold.
At times, he even accepted payments for vehicles he never owned while unloading cars that were in much worse condition than listed.
These aircraft and auto businesses allowed Cipolla to apply for more than $1.35 million in Paycheck Protection Program loans, which were introduced during the pandemic to help business owners struggling during lockdowns.
Cipolla posted piles of money on his social media accounts
Cipolla’s guilty plea stated that $1.18 million was actually donated through the program, and he said he used most of that money to purchase his five-bedroom, nine-bathroom home in Bloomingdale.
The home sold for $1.3 million in July 2020, according to an FBI search warrant.
She also spent the money on Louis Vuitton items and jewelry.
The scams finally caught up with Cipolla when he was indicted on federal taxes in April 2022.
Prosecutors wanted Cipolla detained because of his history of fleeing authorities, something he attempted to do in July 2021 when federal agents raided his home.
Cipolla “attempted to evade officers by retreating to the roof of his own residence, which required law enforcement officers to convince him to leave the roof for the safety of Cipolla and the officers,” prosecutors wrote in a motion to deny him release on bail. bail.
Weeks before his indictment in April 2022, Cipolla was stopped for speeding and told agents he thought federal agents were following him. Cipolla later admitted that he had used cocaine shortly before the traffic stop, the Tribune reported.
A screenshot of a bizarre video where Cipolla is seen setting up a relationship between a male acquaintance and a transgender woman, only for the acquaintance to reject the woman at the last second to mock her. Cipolla and the other man laugh in the car after the fact.
Cipolla was charged with a superseding indictment in the fall of 2022, and was ordered by U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly on Nov. 29 of that year to surrender to federal marshals that day, according to court records.
Indeed, as prosecutors warned, the agents who were following him saw Cipolla get into a vehicle without license plates and try to flee.
Once arrested, he was taken to the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago, where he has been held without bail ever since.
The court heard from Cipolla on Tuesday through a letter he wrote in which he apologized for his “frankly greedy and selfish behavior.”
“I sold cars and told people what they wanted to hear just to make a sale,” Cipolla wrote. “I’m sorry to anyone who lost money, and I mean it sincerely.”
