A Republican scenemaker faces fraud charges

For Bucks County Republicans and power brokers, the parties at Claire Risoldi's extravagant mansion near New Hope were unforgettable affairs.

Risoldi would book bands. Occasionally she brought in performers to impersonate celebrities including Frank Sinatra or Cher. The Mummers made at least one appearance. She even held her own wedding in front of a crowd that had paid for tickets to a fund-raiser for Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick.

"Claire's larger than life," said District Attorney David Heckler, a Republican who had at least one soiree thrown in his honor at Risoldi's estate, a 10-acre property known as Clairemont. "No expense was spared."

Occasionally, guests would whisper about where Risoldi got her money, since her only known job was in her daughter's law office. She often explained that she inherited a windfall from her late husband's successful tile company.

State prosecutors provided their own theory last week: rampant insurance fraud. The Attorney General's Office on Thursday charged Risoldi and several members of her family with bilking insurers out of $20 million after her mansion caught fire three times in five years.

With the proceeds, prosecutors allege, the Risoldis bought six Ferraris, two Rolls-Royces, another house, and $1.2 million worth of jewelry.

Among those also charged with fraud and other crimes were her daughter, Carla Risoldi; son, Carl Risoldi; and husband, Thomas French.

Each was free on bail after their arrests Thursday. A lawyer for Claire Risoldi said she would fight the charges.

In interviews Friday, some of her well-heeled party guests said they were unaware of her allegedly ill-gotten income, not to mention her 1990 federal fraud conviction.

The state grand jury presentment alleges an extravagant lifestyle perpetuated by decades of lies, allowing Risoldi to mingle with the county's Republican elite.

"It's surprising circumstances," said County Commissioner Charles Martin, another Republican who benefited from Risoldi's fund-raisers. Still, he acknowledged, "they kind of had a lavish lifestyle, as you could see."

Risoldi, 67, has filed insurance claims every decade since her drapes caught fire in 1977, according to the grand jury report. And her first husband never owned a tile company - he was just a foreman for one, the report said.

Risoldi received one of her first big insurance payouts in 1984 when she claimed $200,000 worth of jewelry had been stolen from her Yardley home, prosecutors said. Two years later, she submitted $18,000 worth of bogus medical expenses to her husband's union benefit plan, a lie that led to her federal conviction for mail fraud in 1990.

But Risoldi was far from destitute in the years that followed. In the early 1990s, the Risoldis boasted a fine art collection that purportedly included a signed painting by Pablo Picasso. She drove a Jaguar.

In 2000, property records show, Risoldi bought Clairemont. The 5,600-square-foot home now sports white pillars, a swimming pool, and a wrought-iron gazebo surrounded by statues in the backyard.

In 2002, burglars struck, netting Risoldi a $200,000 insurance payout for jewelry and furs, the presentment said. Then the house started catching fire.

Three times between 2009 and 2013, investigators found the causes "undetermined," although most likely electrical, the presentment said.

But cans of aerosol hair spray allegedly were stockpiled near where the fires had started. After the last blaze, home security cameras allegedly show Risoldi leaving her house a minute before the smoke began to rise.

At the same time she was collecting on insurance claims, Risoldi was making an impact on the local Republican fund-raising circuit.

Martin said that he met her "10 years [ago], give or take," and that she was close with the late Harry Fawkes, a Republican boss who controlled the local party for 40 years.

Heckler said that Risoldi's relationship with Fawkes likely helped connect her with the county's elite, and that throwing social events for them was "an outlet for her ambitions."

Risoldi donated tens of thousands of dollars to local candidates, records show, but hosting the parties had a greater impact.

"She was sort of a gracious benefactress," Heckler said. "It appealed to her nature."

Risoldi was never directly involved in politics, sources say, eschewing the grunt work of becoming a local committeeperson or assuming a similar position.

In 2013, after her last home fire, Risoldi claimed that $10 million worth of jewelry had disappeared, and she blamed volunteer firefighters, according to the presentment.

The local police chief - also a member of the fire department - asked Heckler to investigate, the prosecutor said. But because Risoldi had raised money for him, Heckler said, he passed the case to the state Attorney General's Office.

While the state investigated, the insurer AIG rejected Risoldi's $10 million claim. She sued, alleging a breach of contract after she paid an annual premium of $128,000.

She berated the local police and fire chiefs, claiming they were interfering with her insurance claims, and threatened the firm's adjuster, the presentment said.

Many local Republicans knew Risoldi had a large personality and could be combative.

But with fraud charges now pending, most seemed surprised at how far that personality apparently went.

"I would not have imagined she was reckless," Heckler said.