Long Island Banana Mogul Convicted Of Stealing From Workers
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- A former banana importer has been convicted of embezzling about $750,000 from his workers' retirement accounts, federal prosecutors said Friday.
Thomas Hoey was convicted Friday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. Hoey, 48, of Long Island is already serving a federal prison sentence in an unrelated drug case.
Prosecutors alleged Hoey siphoned money from the profit-sharing accounts of his workers at the Long Island Banana Co. to fund a lavish lifestyle. They say he spent the cash on drugs, meals, vacations and trips to gentlemen's clubs.
His attorney told Newsday he was disappointed with the verdict and vowed to appeal. He faces up to 45 years in prison.
In February 2015, Hoey was sentenced to one and a third to four years in prison for assaulting his girlfriend in their Upper East Side apartment building.
He was also convicted of tampering with the evidence at the East 91st Street building by trying to clean up the trail of blood that led from the stairwell to their apartment.
As WCBS 880's Irene Cornell reported at the time, prosecutors made the case that Hoey beat Allison Bretherick so often and so viciously that she once scribbled on the back of a photograph, "If you find me dead, Thomas Hoey did it."
In April 2015, Hoey was convicted of distributing cocaine at a sex party at a Park Avenue hotel, where a woman fatally overdosed. He was sentenced to 12 1/2 years in that case, according to published reports.
Federal prosecutors said Hoey provided cocaine to the woman, Kim Calo, and interfered with her efforts to get medical help. He went on to instruct his driver to remove all cocaine and evidence of the use of cocaine from the room at the Kitano Hotel and lied to police about Calo's death and what had happened in the hotel room, prosecutors said at the time.
(TM and © Copyright 2016 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2016 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
