‘Severely undersold’: Roglieri pans sale price for his exotic car collection
ALBANY - Kris Roglieri, the Albany loan broker accused of stealing millions of dollars in cash from his clients, told a federal bankruptcy judge this week that the trustee overseeing the sale of his property - including his prized sports car collection - is being taken to the cleaners.
"I know there was a sale of some of the assets that I had, particularly vehicles which were severely undersold," Roglieri complained to U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Littlefield Jr. during a bankruptcy hearing held Wednesday at the federal courthouse in Albany. "Particularly, one car was worth $700,000 - and it sold for $350,000."
Roglieri, a well-known sports and racing car collector who lived in a mansion in Queensbury before his May 28 arrest in a federal wire fraud case, was participating in the hearing by phone from the Rensselaer County jail in Troy.
Roglieri was ordered to remain in jail, pending the outcome of his wire fraud case. Prosecutors allege he threatened to kill an FBI agent assigned to the case and poses a safety risk if free.
Roglieri, who is being represented by the federal public defender's office in Albany in his wire fraud case, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in February when he was facing a mountain of civil lawsuits and the FBI started to seize cars as part of its criminal investigation of Roglieri and his loan brokerage business, Prime Capital Ventures of Albany.
After Roglieri's case was converted into a Chapter 7 liquidation, the bankruptcy trustee overseeing his estate seized his home and remaining assets, including what was left of his car collection, artwork, guns, and bank accounts. Roglieri was indicted last month on five counts of wire fraud in connection with a $100 million loan he negotiated in December 2023.
Roglieri recently sent Littlefield a letter asking him if the bankruptcy trustee in his case, Christian Dribusch, would release $100,000 he had taken from Roglieri so that Roglieri could hire prominent local defense attorney William Dreyer to represent him in his criminal case instead of his public defender.
"It's imperative that I get quality counsel," Roglieri told Littlefield. Prosecutors have said they could bring additional charges against Roglieri in a relatively complex financial fraud case.
Littlefield denied Roglieri's request for the $100,000, noting that the money was not exempt under the Chapter 7 rules and had to be preserved along with other assets by the trustee to repay creditors.
"I sympathize with your situation, and I understand your need for Mr. Dreyer," Littlefield told Roglieri during Wednesday's hearing, according to an audio recording provided by the court. "I just can't think of a way to get from here to there (under the law)."
For months, the former CEO of the now-defunct Albany lending firm has faced criminal investigation as well as lawsuits from former clients who allege he kept multimillion-dollar deposits for loans that never materialized.
Roglieri asked the judge in the bankruptcy case to reconsider his request for defense funds, claiming that there should be a surplus left over even after all the creditors are repaid. Dribusch told Littlefield it was unlikely there would be a surplus.
At that point, Roglieri started complaining about Dribusch, who had arranged for several of Roglieri's sports cars to be auctioned off by the Saratoga Automobile Museum last month.
The cars, including a 2014 Novitec Ferrari F12 N-Largo valued at $700,000, fell far short of the $1.5 million that was expected.
That seemed to upset Roglieri, who said he had offered his expertise to the bankruptcy trustee in the spring.
"I offered to Mr. Dribusch when he came to see me at my home that I could assist with the sale of those vehicles to get fair market dollar - not the so-called fire sale value, which I think is severely impairing the creditors in this case," Roglieri told the judge.
Dribusch, a well-respected local bankruptcy trustee, said he conducted a "transparent and comprehensively advertised auction process" that reflected the condition of the vehicles and the current sports car market.
"The entire procedure was approved by the bankruptcy court and was conducted by a highly reputable, not-for-profit which does an annual high-end car auction," Dribusch told the Times Union on Thursday.
Littlefield said he would issue an order denying Roglieri's request so that he could appeal it in the future. He said he honestly sympathized with Roglieri, who also requested that Dribusch return his personal computer so the former loan broker could use it in his defense. Roglieri said the computer has evidence critical to his defense, and Littlefield directed Dribusch to at least get Roglieri a copy of the hard drive.
"If I were in your shoes, I would be doing the same thing," Littlefield told Roglieri of his attempt to get the computer and the cash.
This story was originally published October 18, 2024, 3:32 PM.
