Pinellas County Telemarketer Indicted on Federal Fraud Charges

Peter James Porcelli II, a Pinellas County telemarketer, was indicted last week by a federal grand jury in Tampa on fraud charges. Porcelli is already serving 13 years in federal prison after pleading guilty in 2007 to wire fraud, mail fraud and conspiracy.

Prosecutors in the 2007 case, filed in federal court in Illinois, accused Porcelli of using his telemarketing company to target people who had troubled credit records, telling them their credit would improve if they paid $159 or more to receive a MasterCard credit card. No MasterCard was ever sent, according to court documents, just additional instructions to obtain a MasterCard pre-paid debit card.

As a result of those actions, dating back to 2001 and 2002, the Federal Trade Commission sued Porcelli and his companies, and obtained a restraining order that prohibited him from offering any credit or loan product for sale to consumers.

Porcelli is now accused of establishing a new company about two years after the restraining order was issued. His new corporation, Safe Harbour Foundation of Florida in Clearwater, was a non-profit corporation purportedly formed to “help save homeowners from foreclosure by introducing them to lenders,” according to court papers. Porcelli also created Silverstone Financial and Silverstone Lending. He obtained a Florida license to become a mortgage lender.

According to the new indictment, Porcelli, via the non-profit foundation, sent mailings with fraudulent claims such as, “Guaranteed solution to stay in your home” and “Stop the harassment. Save your credit” from December 2004 to January 2007. The mailings also stated, “The Safe Harbour Foundation has been created to give people a second chance when no one else will … Let the Safe Harbour Foundation pull you to safety.”

Prosecutors claim that potential customers would then call the foundation and Porcelli – using the name Peter James – and others would refer people to Silverstone Lending or other corporations in which Porcelli had an interest, according to the indictment.

Silverstone would then allegedly sell the homeowners loans with high fees and short-term balloon payments that were usually due about six months after the loan was issued. The loans were second mortgages on the homes of already financially-distressed borrowers.

The charges seem to relate specifically to the failure to disclose Porcelli’s true identity and the alleged misrepresentation that the foundation was non-profit and the alleged concealment of the relationships between the foundation and the Silverstone corporations.