NEW ROCHELLE, NY — Salvatore Franciamore, 35, of New Rochelle, NY was charged last Monday with Grand Larceny – Third Degree by the Westchester County District Attorney following an investigation by New Rochelle Police into a complaint of funds missing from a homeowner’ association checking account.
Franciamore was the President of the WestEnd2000 Home Owners Association, an association organized for the purposes of paying insurance, development and maintenance costs for the Town Houses at West Way.
Members of the homeowner’s assocation are upset.
“This Franciamore wiped us out,” said one of the association homeowners who asked not to be identified. “He has put all 24 homeowners in a bad position, we don’t even have insurance right now for the development or maintenance. We are all broke.”
Marlene Valenzuela of Atax Tax Service told Talk of the Sound that her company was responsible to prepare and send bills, collect checks, and make deposits for the homeowners assocation – but not to issue disbursements.
“In March 2015, the association switched banks from HSBC where there was a 2-signer account to Chase bank where there was a single signer account,” said Valenzuela. After the switch, bank statements were no longer sent to Atax Tax Service, she added.
On December 16, 2015, the homeowner’s association convened an emergency meeting at the activity room in nearby Garito Manor to notify homeowners that almost $40,000 in homeowner dues was missing.
Joe Renda, a local firefighter and Vice President of the homeowner’s association took control of the assocation at the meeting. Also on hand was Charlie Depasquale of NDR Group, formerly the New RochelleNeighborhood Revitalization Corporation. NDR Group led the area development of what was supposed to be a much larger neighborhood revitalization project centered on offering affordable town homes to first time home buyers. NDR remains involved as the “backup” on mortgages should a homeowner default, according to one resident. Renda and Depasqulate declined a request to comment for this article.
In a 1999 article in the New York Times, the development, then known as West End 2000, was described as “a $30 million development on a four-acre site bounded by Union Avenue, First Street, Jones Street and Second Street in the western section of New Rochelle”.
“The Revitalization Corporation is the sponsor and developer”, DePasquale told the Times in 1999. “It’s a multiple-use residential development and will contain the first 100-unit, low-income, assisted-living facility in Westchester and 66 single-family duplex homes for first-time buyers.”
