Criminal Justice
FBI Raids Offices of NY Lawyer Who Killed His Family and Himself
Posted Apr 30, 2009, 05:38 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
FBI agents yesterday raided the office of a New York lawyer who apparently killed his family and himself after people who invested with him began demanding their money back.
Authorities carried 37 boxes of evidence from the Manhattan law office of tax and estate-planning lawyer William Parente and seized two hard drives, the New York Daily News reports. Earlier this month, police found the bodies of Parente, his wife, Betty, and their daughters, ages 19 and 11, in a Baltimore-area hotel room. Police believe Parente beat and asphyxiated his family before slashing himself and bleeding to death.
At least a dozen investors have told the FBI they invested about $20 million with Parente over the past 20 years, according to an anonymous source who spoke to Newsday. Parente, a solo practitioner, said he was using the money to make high-interest commercial bridge loans, the source said.
New York City lawyer Bruce Montague says he is one of the investors. He claims he turned over hundreds of thousands of dollars to Parente. When he asked for the return of his investment, he told Newsday earlier this month, Parente sent him a check for $450,000 that bounced.
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