NY Businessman Gets 20 Years For Ponzi Scheme

Investor Lu Tracy of Rochester said she was forced to give up plans to buy a lakeside home in Atlanta after learning the tens of thousands of dollars she had given Piccoli, based on an ad she picked up in a nursing home, were gone. Piccoli, she said, had shaken her faith in mankind.

"I can't relocate or travel or enjoy my retirement," the 69-year-old former manufacturing supervisor said.

Victim Harold DiMarco, 79, of Buffalo said he suffered a heart attack in January and blamed the stress of losing his own investments and "anguish" over steering others, including three who have died, to Piccoli.

Skretny sentenced Piccoli to 20 years for a mail fraud charge and imposed a five-year concurrent sentence for tax evasion. Piccoli pleaded guilty to the charges in June.

Investors, who will receive an undetermined percentage of their money back, were told they would not receive anything until after investigators had finalized the amount available, likely sometime next year.

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