Nightmare at (the Other) Trump Tower
Dec. 2, 2016 — Condo’s treasurer used building funds as his personal “piggy bank.”
It’s every co-op and condo board’s worst nightmare: a respected board member starts secretly siphoning money from the building coffers, leaving the building financially devastated.
Frank Palazzolo, the condo board’s treasurer at the Trump Tower at City Center in White Plains, used the condo funds as his own personal “piggy bank,” siphoning an estimated $1.3 million, according to a lawsuit filed this week, the New York Post reports. This board, clearly, failed to heed some classic warning signs.
The alleged theft has left the Westchester Trump Tower “in a precarious financial position – unable to pay for basic services and exposed to significant litigation risk,” said the Manhattan federal court filing. Palazzolo was ousted from his treasurer position in July 2015 after the board noticed an unauthorized transaction. Prior to that, the lawsuit said, Palazzolo had been a “seemingly indispensable member of the board,” who was praised as a “financial wizard.”