Former Professional Football Player Pleads Guilty in Manhattan Federal Court to Bankruptcy Fraud
PREET BHARARA, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, JOSEPH M. DEMAREST, JR., the Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation ("FBI"), PATRICIA J. HAYNES, the Special Agent-in-Charge of the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Inspection Division ("IRS-CID"), and RONALD J. VERROCHIO, the Inspector-in-Charge of the New York Office of the United States Postal Inspection Service ("USPIS"), announced that CLYDE "PETER" HALL, 70, of Manhattan, pleaded guilty this morning to charges arising out of a scheme in which HALL conspired to file serial, fraudulent bankruptcy petitions to evade eviction and remain in a Manhattan apartment rent-free. HALL pleaded guilty today in Manhattan federal court before United States District Judge RICHARD J. SULLIVAN to one count of conspiring to commit bankruptcy fraud. HALL's wife, ANNE TORSELIUS HALL, 45, pleaded guilty yesterday to a charge related to HALL's bankruptcy fraud scheme.
According to the Indictment to which HALL pleaded guilty, other documents filed in connection with this case, and statements made in court:
In April 2003, HALL, who decades ago played football for the New York Giants, and his wife ANNE TORSELIUS HALL signed a one-year lease for an apartment occupying the top three floors of a five-story brownstone building on Manhattan's Upper West Side. The HALLs' rent was $5,800 per month. In November 2003, the HALLs stopped paying rent to the owner of the apartment (the "Landlady"), and they refused to move out when the Lease expired in May 2004. Between August 2004 and December 2004, and after the Landlady successfully obtained an order for the HALLs' eviction, CLYDE HALL filed or caused to be filed a series of last-minute bankruptcy petitions in United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, which contained false representations, for the purpose of halting the eviction proceeding and allowing CLYDE HALL and ANNE HALL to remain in the apartment without paying rent.
The HALLs eventually moved out of the apartment in early January 2004 and into an new, $9,500 per month apartment on the Upper West Side. By that time, the HALLs owed the Landlady approximately $81,200 in rent, which they never paid. At the same time, CLYDE HALL caused a total of approximately $78,000 to be paid to his new landlord for alterations to the new apartment and to pre-pay a significant amount of the rent.
On April 20, 2009, CLYDE HALL pleaded guilty to wire fraud charges arising from a separate scheme in which he peddled bogus bank instruments and claimed to have access to high yield investment programs in order to defraud investors of millions of dollars.
On the conspiracy to commit bankruptcy fraud to which HALL pleaded guilty today (Count Five of the Indictment), he faces a maximum potential penalty of five years in prison and a fine of $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss resulting from the offense. The six wire fraud counts to which HALL pleaded guilty in April each carry a maximum potential penalty of 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss derived from the offense. The total maximum possible term of imprisonment is therefore 125 years.
Judge SULLIVAN remanded CLYDE HALL to prison following his April guilty plea; he is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge SULLIVAN on the charges to which he pleaded guilty in April and today on February 19, 2010, at 11:00 a.m. ANNE HALL is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge SULLIVAN on March 5, 2010, at 10:00 a.m.
Mr. BHARARA thanked the FBI, the IRS-CID, and USPIS for their work in this investigation.
This prosecution is being handled by the Complex Frauds Unit of the United States Attorney's Office. Assistant United States Attorney THOMAS G. A. BROWN is in charge of the prosecution