Par Funding loan collector, a Gambino soldier, sent cash from Philly firm to N.Y. mob, prosecutors say

Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn say James LaForte, a former collector for Philadelphia-based Par Funding, “kicked up” more than $1.5 million in profits from the loan company to firms controlled by a “captain” in the New York-based Gambino crime family, in which LaForte served as a “soldier.”

According to a grand jury indictment released last week, the Par funds — referred to as “proceeds of LaForte’s criminal activity” — were paid to companies controlled by Gambino captain Joseph Lanni in an effort to “conceal the underlying source of the funds,” which was Par Funding.

In May, federal prosecutors in Philadelphia charged James LaForte with conspiring with his brother Joseph LaForte and other owners of Par Funding to defraud hundreds of investors who raised more than $500 million to finance the company’s merchant cash advance business in hopes of collecting double-digit annual profits.

Par Funding was seized by a court-appointed receiver in 2020. Since then, lawyers have been tracing and taking control of the company’s assets, including cash, homes, cars, a jet, and other property collected by company owners.

They are trying to return at least $250 million to investors the government believes were defrauded by the company, also known as Complete Business Financial Solutions (CBFS), and related companies controlled by Joseph LaForte, who faces Par-related criminal charges in Philadelphia but is not a subject of the New York indictment.

Lanni and James LaForte were among 10 alleged Gambinos — a captain, three soldiers, and six associates — accused of racketeering conspiracy in the indictment, which targets members of the organization once headed by the late convicted racketeer and murderer John Gotti.

LaForte was “‘made’ — or formally inducted — into the Gambino crime family” in a ceremony on Oct. 17, 2019, alongside a second new member, who was a subject of federal wiretaps and surveillance that helped build the case, according to the indictment.

Besides racketeering, the Brooklyn indictment accuses James LaForte of extortion and beating an unnamed victim who owed an associate money “by wrongful and threatened use of actual and threatened force, violence and fear.” He was also charged with retaliating against a witness — allegedly beating a man he and a mob colleague suspected of informing on fellow mobsters — at a Manhattan restaurant in 2021; and possession of a Smith & Wesson .38 Special revolver, despite his earlier convictions on financial felonies.

Other defendants were charged with extorting New York area demolition and trash-hauling businesses and ripping off employee benefit plans.

Most of the accused were arrested and arraigned in New York last week. LaForte was already in federal custody in Philadelphia.

Three lawyers representing James LaForte didn’t return calls seeking comment on the Brooklyn charges.

James LaForte was charged in March with assaulting Philadelphia attorney Gaetan Alfano from behind outside his Center City law office, hitting Alfano in the head with a flashlight. LaForte’s flight was caught on video cameras along his path, leading to his arrest.

Alfano had been hired by the court-appointed receiver to prepare the sale of properties belonging to James LaForte and his wife to raise cash for investors they defrauded. Alfano recovered, and resumed work on the property sales.

Par stopped payments to investors in March 2020 and was taken over by a court-appointed receiver that July, after the Securities and Exchange Commission filed civil fraud charges against Joseph LaForte and other Par officials and investment salespeople. FBI agents, who had been investigating the company, assisted the SEC in seizing properties.

Joseph LaForte and Lisa McElhone, his wife and codefendant, controlled Par. James LaForte helped lead debt collection efforts for the company, according to the government.

The SEC and federal prosecutors in Philadelphia said the Par principals sold fraudulent, unregistered securities, without warning investors that both LaForte brothers were felons. They also say the owners failed to warn investors that Par’s business consisted of making risky, uninsured loans to borrowers who were often unable to pay the company back, and lying about the risk. Last year Joseph LaForte and McElhone agreed to pay or give up assets worth (a revised) $197 million and to stop fighting the SEC allegations.

Prosecutors also alleged that the LaForte brothers extorted Par’s small-business borrowers, threatening violence when businesses fell behind on their payments. Another Par collector, Renato “Gino” Gioe, a reputed Gambino associate, pleaded guilty last year to federal extortion charges after the government accused him of threatening to hurt borrowers. Last winter Perry Abbonizio, a former securities salesman, pleaded guilty to criminal fraud charges in relation to his sales of unregistered Par securities to investors.

In their Philadelphia indictments, the LaForte brothers were charged with obstruction of justice, witness tampering, and retaliation, in connection with the attack on lawyer Alfano and other threats. They have denied wrongdoing and are fighting the charges.

James LaForte is charged with making threatening calls to others in connection with the SEC case, including relatives of Abbonizio, the salesman.

The LaForte brothers are in prison while preparing to fight the allegations in court.

Among the other defendants in the Brooklyn case is Vincent J. Minsquero, who the government says is a Gambino associate. Minsquero is one of several LaForte family friends who helped Joseph LaForte pay lawyers who defended him from the SEC case, pledging a family home as collateral for a loan, according to documents filed in that case.

According to New York State records, Minsquero owned two bars in Brooklyn as of last fall but has since been taken off their licenses. One of the bars had been managed by James LaForte.

Staff writer Jeremy Roebuck contributed to this article.