Serving Manhasset, Munsey Park, North Hills, Plandome Heights, Plandome Manor, Plandome and Flower Hill
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Friday, October 2, 2020
Vol. 8, No. 40
HOME & DESIGN
NASSAU RATED SAFEST HOFSTRA POLL SHOWS COUNTY IN U.S. BIDEN WIDENING EDGE
PAGES 23-28, 37-42
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Trader Rinfret sentenced for Ponzi scheme
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SPLISH SPLASH
Ex-Manhasset man to serve 63 months after costing investors $19M BY R O S E W E L D ON Just short of a year after he pleaded guilty to wire fraud and securities fraud, a former Manhasset man has been sentenced to prison for defrauding victims of $19 million in a Ponzi scheme, according to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Paul A. Rinfret, formerly of Manhasset and formerly the owner and operator of the firm Plandome Partners LLC, was sentenced to 63 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Gregory H. Woods on Tuesday. Investors in Plandome Partners, which the complaint said was founded in 2011, were led to believe that all of their funds would be for trading futures contracts on the Standard & Poor’s 500 index, the initial Homeland Security investigations complaint said. Only a small amount of that money was traded, according to the com-
plaint. “As alleged, Paul Rinfret willfully and continually defrauded his investors, the very people he was tasked with serving, in a multimillion-dollar Ponzi scheme that served to enrich only him,” said Angel M. Melendez, special agentin-charge of the New York field office of Homeland Security investigations, said at the time. The scheme took place from at least May 2016 to June 2019, according to the Homeland Security investigations complaint. A complaint filed last year by the Securities and Exchange Commission said it began in late 2013. One of the brokerage accounts Rinfret said Plandome Partners traded with did not exist, while two others were closed when Rinfret said he was using them, authorities said. The trading Rinfret actually did with the funds led to losses, but he told the investors the inContinued on Page 49
PHOTO VIA INSTAGRAM, COURTESY OF @JOJOTHEBLACKLAB
Black laborador retriever Jojo of Plandome romps with friends.
Parent criticizes Port district’s reopening BY R O S E W E L D ON “Are you sure you’re ready?” Dan Chuzmir, the parent of a student at Guggenheim Elementary School, asked in an email to the Port Washington
school district. Addressed to district Superintendent Michael Hynes, Chuzmir’s email claims the school system “had no interest in a virtual plan” for when students returned for the
school year in the midst of COVID-19, and claims the district had been pushing for students to return in person when the schools were unable to accommodate them. Continued on Page 50
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