Cops: Detectives Quickly Learned
 of William Parente's Financial Woes

By Andrew Strickler and Michael Amon
Newsday
April 23, 2009

Allegations that William Parente had financial troubles surfaced in the hours after the Parente family's bodies were found in a Maryland hotel room, Baltimore County police said Thursday.

As a detective began calling numbers in Parente's cell phone to try to reach a relative, "more than one" person volunteered that Parente had "questionable financial dealings," police Cpl. Michael Hill said Thursday.

"These were not family members. These were clients, acquaintances, or otherwise," he said. "That information was given to the FBI."

Evidence found at the scene of the murder-suicide shows Parente was under pressure from unhappy investors before he killed his wife and two children and then himself, a law enforcement official said Thursday.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Baltimore County police found the evidence shortly after they discovered the bodies of the Garden City family Monday in a Sheraton Hotel room in Towson, Md.

On Wednesday, the FBI began investigating what the Baltimore County police chief called Parente's "questionable financial dealings."

Material found in the hotel room "indicated that there were some people seeking their money back," the law enforcement official said.

Hill said he knew of no physical evidence or documents found in the room that suggested a financial problem.

A close friend and colleague of Parente who spoke on condition of anonymity said he has fielded calls from investors who had given Parente millions.

FBI spokesman James Margolin said the precise worth of Parente's business remained unknown Thursday.

The New York State attorney general's office is also looking into a complaint against Parente filed by the Bayside law office of Bruce Montague, who told Newsday Tuesday he invested nearly $450,000 with Parente and now doesn't know where his money is. He said he tried to get out of the investment, but two checks for $245,000 from Parente bounced when he tried to cash them Tuesday.
Several other investors also received bad checks from Parente this week, Parente's close friend said Wednesday. The friend said he took calls from the worried investors, who had given Parente as much as $6 million and as little as $50,000 and could not reach Parente Monday and Tuesday when the checks bounced.

"People are calling and saying their whole life savings are gone," the friend said.

Investors who have lost between $500,000 and $2 million have called Montague's office, an attorney there said Thursday. In total, the attorney said, the callers had invested $20 million.

Parente, 59, was primarily a tax and estate attorney, but he has also run a side operation as a bridge loan broker for about 20 years, soliciting millions from a tight-knit circle of friends and colleagues to fund construction projects and other commercial ventures, the friend said.

"He had a reputation as a guy you could go to if you needed money," said the friend, who said he was not an investor himself. "Something must have gone terribly wrong."

"People would have trusted him with their lives. He was an upstanding, credible person," the friend said.

Parente promised returns of 10 to 15 percent annually and always paid quarterly - and promptly, Montague said Tuesday. He said he was introduced to Parente six years ago by another attorney he declined to name.

Craig Gardy, an attorney in Montague's law practice, said the money Montague lost was his own, not firm funds. Montague Wednesday declined to comment through Gardy.

"We're trying to get back to work here. That money can be replaced . . but it's the tragedy of it," Gardy said. "What Bill Parente did to his family is unforgivable, and our hearts and condolences go out to the remaining family."

Parente fatally beat and asphyxiated his wife, Betty, 58, and daughters, Catherine, 11, and Stephanie, 19, before cutting himself with a knife and bleeding to death, police said.

Montague said he asked William Parente for his money back in December after the Bernard Madoff scandal spooked him, but Parente stalled. When Montague finally deposited $245,000 from Parente on Tuesday - a day after Parente and his family were found dead - the checks bounced, he said.

"I certainly feel foolish for investing like this, but my feeling foolish is overpowered by my anger and desire to get this out there," Montague, 47, said Tuesday. "The money can be replaced, but to destroy lives like that is unforgivable.

Family Slay Was 'Ponzi' Massacre

By Kieran Crowley
New York Daily News
April 23, 2009

A Long Island lawyer who fatally beat and suffocated his wife and two daughters in a hotel room -- then remained with the bodies for nearly half a day before killing himself -- was under investigation for allegedly running a $20 million Ponzi scheme, sources said yesterday.

William Parente apparently went off the deep end knowing checks he wrote to an investor who wanted his money back were about to bounce.

Queens attorney Bruce Montague had thought he was putting his $450,000 into short-term real estate loans, said colleague Craig Gardy.

"There are a lot more [victims] than Montague," Gardy said, adding his associate "was the smallest" investor so far. Other investors, he said, indicated they had lost more than $20 million.

FBI spokesman Jim Margolin said, "The cops are handling the crime, but based on information they passed along to us, we're investigating Mr. Parente's business interests to determine any financial impropriety."

Parente apparently knew his life was about to collapse when he left his Garden City, LI, home last Wednesday with his wife, Betty, and 11-year-old daughter, Catherine.

They checked into a Baltimore-area Sheraton hotel to visit another daughter, Stephanie, a 19-year-old student at Loyola College.

Investigators said the family was last seen eating breakfast together at around 9 a.m. Sunday.

After Stephanie went back to her campus, her family returned to the room, where the unthinkable tragedy took place.

During the next few hours, Parente, 59, first bludgeoned and smothered his wife, 58.

Catherine was next.

Hotel records indicate the room's electronic key was last used about 4 p.m., apparently by Stephanie.

She was killed in the same way -- first hit on the head and then smothered or strangled, cops said.

Parente left the bodies on a king-size bed, and covered them with sheets -- but stayed in the room for most of the day.

Police Reveal How NY Lawyer Killed Wife, Daughters, Self
in Hotel room; FBI Investigating Finances

By Greg B. Smith and and Rich Schapiro
New York Daily News
April 22, 2009

The FBI is investigating whether the Manhattan lawyer who wiped out his family before killing himself was running a shady investment scheme that ripped off investors.

William Parente wrote more than $400,000 in bad checks to at least one of his duped investors before turning a Baltimore hotel room into a death chamber.

"We are investigating whether there were financial improprieties with Parente's business activities," FBI spokesman James Margolin said.

A source familiar with the investigation said it's not yet clear how many investors were hurt or how much money was lost.

Parente's mounting money woes emerged as authorities revealed for the first time the brutality of his wife and two daughters' final hours.

Over an extended period of time, he methodically beat and suffocated his Garden City, L.I. family. They were in Baltimore to visit eldest daughter, Stephanie, 19, a student at Loyola College.

But the visit turned into a sickening spasm of violence Sunday.

One by one, he killed them, officials said.

First it was his wife Betty, 58. Then little Catherine, 11. And finally, Stephanie, Baltimore County police said.

Parente then cut himself and died in the bathroom.

The bodies of Parente's wife and two daughters were discovered on a bed Monday afternoon by a hotel worker at the Sheraton in Towson, Maryland.

Investigators are still trying to determine if there was a struggle inside the room.

Police Chief Jim Johnson said that Stephanie's college roommate had called Sunday evening, worried that she wasn't back on campus preparing for a Monday exam.

Johnson said William Parente answered the phone and told the young woman that his daughter would be sleeping that night in the hotel.

Cops believe that when he picked up the phone at midnight, that Stephanie, her mom, and little sister were already dead.

Cops found documents in the room indicating Parente was in financial dire straits and turned them over to the feds.

Bruce Montague, a Bayside, Queens lawyer, invested hundreds of thousands of dollars with Parente over six years. When he asked for his money back in recent weeks, Parente wrote him more than $400,000 in checks  that later bounced.

"The money can be remade - we're a successful law firm," said Montague's colleague, Craig Gardy. "What Mr. Parente did to his family is unforgivable."

The murder stunned Parente's neighbors, who described the family as idyllic, religious Catholics and good neighbors.