A New York man who served as caretaker for his elderly neighbor has admitted to stealing nearly $142,000 in pension payments that kept flowing after the neighbor died.
Danilo Pesce, 60, of Pelham pleaded guilty to fourth-degree grand larceny in Albany County Court, New York Attorney General Letitia James says.
The neighbor, Jack Lee Morgan, was a retired Pelham school district teacher who collected a pension from the New York State Teachers’ Retirement System.
Morgan died in 2020 with no living beneficiary, so the payments should have stopped.
But nobody told the retirement system about the death, and it kept sending $3,497 a month into Morgan’s bank account.
While working as Morgan’s caretaker, Pesce had been added to the bank account and to the deed of Morgan’s Pelham home.
Starting on March 17th, 2020, less than a month after Morgan died, Pesce regularly pulled money out of the account, the attorney general’s office says.
He used the cash on upkeep and renovations at Morgan’s home, where he and his wife were living part-time.
In total, Pesce took $141,968.
He has paid $147,000 back to the retirement system, which includes $6,000 in interest.
Says James,
“Danilo Pesce took advantage of the retirement system that thousands of hard-working New York teachers rely on… This heartless theft should serve as a reminder that my office will not tolerate anyone who breaks the law to steal from their neighbors.”
Pesce was arrested on July 30th of this year.
