Pig roast nearly lands millionaire in prison
Having resolved his tax fraud with an $11.5 million payment, local businessman John Gizzi almost landed himself in prison last month by attending a Republican Party barbecue.
“You’re seen as the millionaire who walked away with a probation sentence and bought himself out of federal prison,” U.S. District Judge Frank Geraci Jr. told Gizzi at a hearing Wednesday at which Gizzi admitted violating the terms of his federal probation.
“You know why you’re here today?” Geraci said. “Because somebody at that pig roast blew you in.”
In February Geraci sentenced Gizzi to a year of home confinement and five years of probation. Gizzi had earlier pleaded guilty to filing false tax returns in what was the largest tax evasion crime committed by a single individual to be prosecuted by the Rochester region office of the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Gizzi, 65, paid $11.5 million to fulfill his restitution and forfeiture payments. Geraci decided on probation for Gizzi because of a litany of serious health ailments the businessman suffers from, as well as ample support from Gizzi’s employees who lauded him as a businessman and kind-hearted boss.
Gizzi, who founded and owns a machinery manufacturing company, is allowed to leave his home during daytime hours to be at his office for work. However, on June 17, Gizzi went from the office to the Ogden Republican Committee pig roast.
Gizzi said Wednesday that he talked to subcontractors at the pig roast, soliciting help for volunteer construction he is involved with at the Rochester Rotary Sunshine Campus for disabled children. There he is helping construct new facilities.
He said he believed his visit to the roast constituted work.
“I thought that I was working and I was trying to get support from some people to help me with the Sunshine Camp,” Gizzi said.
His attorney, John Speranza, said after the hearing that Gizzi volunteered to fund the Sunshine Camp construction.
“It was not part of his sentence,” Speranza said. “He volunteered to do it. He’s been working on it diligently.”
Gizzi is working as a consultant to his manufacturing business and does not, because of his health, work in the field, Speranza said.
Gizzi pleaded guilty Wednesday to violating his probation. Geraci chose not to send him to prison, as he could have.
Still, Geraci said, he was skeptical of Gizzi’s claims that he did not realize he was breaching probation terms at the barbecue.
“I’m not going to hesitate to send you to federal prison next time you step out of bounds,” Geraci said. “… 99 percent of the time you’ve complied, and I don’t want to make this bigger than it is.”
