Woman who accused firefighters of stealing jewelry is charged in multi-million dollar insurance scheme
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I love this story. I’m not sure exactly why, but it put a big smile on my face. Claire Risoldi, a wealthy woman from a prominent family in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, accused firefighters of stealing $10 million if her jewelry after one of the three fires in the mansion she named after herself. The third fire in Clairemont was in October of 2013 and now prosecutors have caught up with Risoldi, her family and some others. If all goes well, maybe Ms. Risoldi can soon name a prison cell Clairemont.
I will add the video to this story when it becomes available. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.
State prosecutors on Thursday said a well-known Bucks County family – whose members include a former prosecutor, a former deputy sheriff and a prominent Republican Party fundraiser – tried to bilk more than $20 million from insurers in a fraud scheme.
The charges, which follow a grand jury investigation, allege that matriarch Claire Risoldi, 67, a prominent GOP donor and fundraiser, and other family members claimed millions in losses after their New Hope mansion, which they called “Clairemont,” caught fire three times in four years. They then used the insurance claim payouts to buy $1.2 million in jewelry, six Ferraris, two Rolls Royces and other vehicles worth $2.8 million, prosecutors allege.
“This family and their co-conspirators stole millions to fund a lifestyle of extravagance and excess,” Attorney General Kathleen Kane said in a statement. “Insurance fraud drives up the cost for everyone, including seniors and middle-class families. Even worse, the scheme was facilitated through threats, intimidation and falsely accusing first responders of serious crimes.”
Five members of a Bucks County family are accused of conspiring to defraud insurance companies in excess of $20 million to live an “excessively extravagant lifestyle,” Attorney General Kathleen Kane announced Thursday.
67-year-old Claire A. Risoldi along with her 64-year-old husband Thomas French, her 48-year-old son Carl Risoldi, her 48-year-old daughter Carla Risoldi, her 43-year-old daughter-in-law Sheila Risoldi, as well as 54-year-old Mark Goldman, a private investigator, and 51-year-old Richard Holston, a fabric vendor turned themselves into authorities Thursday morning.
According to the Grand Jury presentment, the investigation began after an October 2013 fire at Claire Risoldi’s home in New Hope, Bucks County, or “Clairemont,” as she referred to it.
“Even worse, the scheme was facilitated through threats, intimidation and falsely accusing first-responders of serious crimes,” state Attorney General Kathleen Kane said in a written statement.
The investigation resulted in the seizure of approximately $7 million in assets, including approximately $3 million in seized bank accounts, $1.2 million in jewelry, six Ferraris, two Rolls Royces, one Ford Mustang Cobra, and four other vehicles worth $2.8 million.
A grand jury established in its presentment “that the Risoldi family has a history of filing questionable insurance claims for the past 20 or 30 years.” Investigators found in August that Claire Risoldi still possessed jewelry she claimed was stolen in 1993, according to the court documents.
Fire spread through the Risoldis’ New Hope home, named “Clairemont” by the woman, three times between June 2009 and October 2013. According to prosecutors, each fire started near a stockpile of highly flammable materials and the cause was ruled undetermined.
In one case, home surveillance video captured Risoldi leaving the house a minute before smoke appeared and may have been inside when the home was burning, prosecutors said.
The family then would collect insurance money for lost jewelry, art and home treatments.
Risoldi accused firefighters of stealing more than $10 million in jewelry from “Clairemont” while fighting one of the blazes, Kane said.
