Sinnott jail sentence closes out fraud case
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By ANDREW McKEEVER Herald Staff - Published: December 30, 2005
BRATTLEBORO — A former Bennington legislator and Select Board chairman was sentenced Thursday in U.S. District Court to three months imprisonment and a further three months of home confinement.
Howard Sinnott, 55, agreed to plead guilty to two counts of interstate transmittal and transportation of stolen money last February. He will serve a further two years and nine months of supervised release after the period of home confinement ends, according to the sentence handed down by Judge J. Garvan Murtha.
Sinnott could have faced up to 57 months in jail, but Murtha said Sinnott's cooperation with federal prosecutors in related cases involving the defunct Law Centers for Consumer Protection, a Bennington-based debt reduction firm in which Sinnott was a partner, was a factor in the sentencing.
"If you had not worked out an arrangement with the government you would have faced a long time in prison," Murtha said. "You made the right decision to plead guilty and cooperate — it enables me to impose a less severe sentence."
Sinnott will also have to make restitution of $500,000 to a court-supervised fund to reimburse, if only partially, the victims of a scheme to defraud clients of the Law Centers for Consumer Protection who were expecting help with reducing their credit card liabilities, according to court documents.
That will be a rough financial burden for Sinnott going forward. He is unemployed and has had virtually all his assets seized by the federal government, said his attorney, Lisa B. Shelkrot.
Sinnott got into his legal and financial predicament out of a fear of poverty, desperation and vanity, Shelkrot said in her statement to the court.
"He had a moral voice and compass and his failure was that he didn't follow that," she said.
Sinnott's business partner, Andrew F. Capoccia, 62, was a genius at exploiting Sinnott's "tragic personal flaws," she said.
According to court records, Capoccia formed the Andrew F. Capoccia Law Centers, a predecessor to the Law Centers for Consumer Protection, in Albany, N.Y., in 1998. In November 1999, the New York Attorney General's Office filed a civil fraud suit against the Capoccia Law Centers, alleging the firm engaged in deceptive business practices and misrepresented its ability to negotiate reductions in consumers' debts.
Capoccia, a New York attorney, was disbarred in September 2000, and sold the Law Centers to Sinnott, then one of his employees. Sinnott then moved the business to Bennington.
But trouble followed the move to Vermont. The firm was investigated in March 2002 by the FBI and the New York State Police amid allegations that partners, employees and other persons connected to the Law Centers had participated in a scheme to defraud several million dollars in client funds from the Law Centers accounts.
U.S. marshals seized about $2.6 million in Law Centers assets at the time, mostly of which were in the name of Carol Capoccia, Andrew Capoccia's wife, according to court documents.
A 40-count indictment involving seven members of the Law Centers, including Sinnott, alleging mail and wire fraud followed in March 2003. Thursday's sentence brings to a close Sinnott's part of the case.
Andrew Capoccia was found guilty on April 5, 2005, of 13 counts of interstate transportation of stolen money and mail and wire fraud. He is scheduled to be sentenced in Brattleboro on Feb. 3, 2006.
In a statement Sinnott read to the court before his sentencing, he placed the onus for his mistakes squarely on himself.
"Because of insecurity and financial desperation I went forward," Sinnott said. "I put the interests of myself above those of the firm's clients. I should have known better."
Sinnott said his parents' divorce when he was 6 years old may have led him to see in Capoccia a mentor and role model he never had during his younger years.
Sinnott was not responsible for most of the damage done to the firm's clients, who collectively lost several million dollars, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Gregory L. Waples.
But eventually through neglect he allowed Capoccia to plunder the firm's assets, and that kind of criminal misconduct deserved punishment, he said.
"To Sinnott's great credit, he appears genuinely sorry about his conduct," Waples said.
Sinnott, a former attorney, was stripped of his membership in the Vermont Bar Association on Oct. 17.
He will begin serving his sentence on Jan. 31, 2006, at a federal camp in Fort Devens, Mass. When he is released to home confinement three months later, he will have to wear an electronic monitoring device.
He will also have to turn over 10 percent of his monthly gross earnings as part of the restitution plan, Murtha said.
Sinnott will also put up for sale property he and his wife own in Bennington within 12 months if its value exceeds that of another property they own in Wilmington, according to the plea agreement.
Sinnott was originally elected to the Bennington Select Board in 1987 and served a total of nine years on the board. He was the board's chairman for two of those years and his last term ended in March 2002, said Bennington Town Clerk Timothy Corcoran.
He was one of Bennington's representatives to the state Legislature from 1996-98, Corcoran said.
"He didn't concoct the scheme," Corcoran said. "I'm sure he's glad it's over with and the light sentence reflects his cooperation."
Contact Andrew McKeever at andrew.mckeever@rutlandherald.com.
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