$100M missing: if allegations are true one attorney says it's 'much worse' than FTX scandal

Last edited Wed Apr 17, 2024, 10:27 AM - Edit history (1)

summary; non profit founder, Leo Govoni, loaned $100 million from the funds to his other business. he's not in jail yet. should be!!

https://www.wfla.com/8-on-your-side/st-pete-non-profit-responds-to-what-happened-to-missing-100-million/

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Millions of dollars in trust fund money is missing — cash that was meant to provide long-term care for some of the most vulnerable.

A local non-profit was supposed to manage those funds, but the founder is now accused of loaning himself $100 million and not repaying that money. The Center for Special Needs Trust Administration manages trust funds for people that have had catastrophic personal injuries and received a settlement because of it. 8 On Your Side discovered their money started vanishing in 2009.

“I get a letter in the mail saying the account has been depleted,” said Louis Capasso, Elena’s dad. “There’s nothing left in there.”

Capasso said his daughter Elena, who has downs syndrome, had $250,000 in a trust account managed by the Center for Special Needs Trust Administration. Every penny he says is gone.

“They don’t see you getting the money back they said,” said Capasso.

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The center said its new leadership learned two years ago there was a $100 million loan to Boston Finance Group, a company controlled by the center’s founder, Leo Govoni and his associates.

The loan transfers began in 2009 around the same time Govoni stepped down from the center’s board. Court documents reveal Govoni still had control and influence over the center’s operations and finances.



https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/100m-missing-who-approved-loan-in-the-first-place/ar-BB1lxf7h

$100M missing: Who approved loan in the first place?

The Byers, like hundreds of others, learned in February that their money was drained. The center said its founder, Leo Govoni loaned $100 million to his company, Boston Finance Group between 2009 and 2020 and has not paid it back.

“It just relieves all the memories that we tried to work out and try to get over the past and now we’re just right back,” said Jason.

Two years after learning about the loan, the center filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy.

According to the bankruptcy filing, the first $50 million dollar loan was initiated in 2009.

“The center does not possess any records showing that a loan or line of credit to BFG or any other party was authorized by the center’s board of directors or any other party at the center,” the filing said.

The second $50 million loan was initiated in 2012. The document also alleges that the loan agreement was executed by the center’s president and board member, Todd Belisle.

“One of the most rewarding things we can do here is to help people,” Belisle said in a promotional video from 2009.

The filing claims he has no recollection of signing the loan. However, one of Govoni’s attorneys filed a motion in the ongoing class action lawsuit against Govoni and his companies. The motion entered the document as evidence, and it appears to be a copy of the loan document that the center said it doesn’t have. It shows loan increases were approved with the written consent of the board of directors at the center. Their signatures are right on the document.