These guys are scum of the lowest order

ShibbOleth · July 2, 2002, 2:44pm

from the St. Pete Times

Safety Harbor, Florida
…

Pasquarelli, 46, of Palm Harbor was arrested Friday night. On Monday, investigators said they were looking to arrest his associate, David B. Andrews, 73, of Spring Hill. Both have been charged with violating the Racketeer-Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, also known as RICO.

“It’s amazing, absolutely amazing, how much money these guys took from people,” said Sheryl Goodman-Lord, director of Pinellas County Department of Consumer Protection. “What they did was wrong. They broke the law, and they broke it more than once.”

During a multi-agency investigation triggered by a St. Petersburg Times story, investigators reviewed the files belonging to 30 students at Pasquarelli’s studios in Safety Harbor, Clearwater and Oldsmar. Those 30 customers had been talked into signing 328 different sales contracts totalling $3.5-million, according to investigators.

“All but two of those contracts were obtained by use of a relay sales team, a practice of subjecting students to two or more sales representatives on the same day, as (is) prohibited by the Dance Studio Act,” Pinellas-Pasco state attorney’s investigator Robert Clark said in a sworn statement.

A five-page court document summarizing the investigation listed at least **five students who spent $100,000 on dance lessons **and five who spent $20,000 or more. One was 75-year-old Audrie Jones of Palm Harbor, who told the Times in January that she was pressured into spending $257,000 during three weeks in December.

…

Ruth Carlson, 76, a retired New York bookkeeper, maxed out two credit cards and cashed her certificates of deposit to pay for seven dance contracts that cost more than $30,000. When she had her doctor inform the studio that she could not take the dance lessons because of a sprained ankle, Pasquarelli refused to give her a refund, she said.

“They pressure you terrible to sign a contract,” Carlson said. "I even asked them to let me think about it and they said, “Oh no, you sign today and everything will be fine.”’

Doing so has cost her. She lives on her Social Security and can afford to pay only the minimum monthly charges on her credit cards.

“It’s been tough,” Carlson said. “I didn’t have any money to buy groceries. My daughter had to send me money. I have never been in this situation in my life. It’s very depressing. … It sure would help me if I could get some of my money back.”

…

Pasquarelli was scheduled to go to trial today on a misdemeanor charge that he lied to the state about how long he had been in business so he could be exempt from having to post a security bond. That charge was dismissed Monday, Atkinson said.

**In 1995, Andrews was convicted of preying on elderly dance club patrons at Aragon World Dance Studio in Port Richey. **Investigators then said Andrews and the studio’s owner used similar pressure tactics and intimidation to sell expensive packages of dance lessons and trips, mostly to elderly women. His and other cases like it prompted the Legislature to write a new law in 1992 to regulate dance studios.

**In 1998, Andrews was released from prison, but his 20-year probation did not ban him from the dance studio business. So he went back to work at Dance Place, where his duties included managing telemarketers and going over contracts with clients. **

I don’t even know where to begin with the sort of people who would bilk somebody’s grandmother out of their life savings. Plus the corrections officials who knew they might do this again when they were released from prison the first time and did nothing to monitor their activities. This makes me sick.

CRorex · July 2, 2002, 3:25pm

Umm

100,000$ on dance lessons?

I feel badly for those people getting swindled and all.

BUT ITS NOT LIKE ITS A FREAKING SUPRISE!

100k for dance lessons!

OMG

Sublight · July 2, 2002, 3:38pm

“All but two of those contracts were obtained by use of a relay sales team, a practice of subjecting students to two or more sales representatives on the same day, as (is) prohibited by the Dance Studio Act,”

Florida law includes a Dance Studio Act?

Gatopescado · July 2, 2002, 4:09pm

I thought this was going to be a thread about lawyers! Lawyers take your money and don’t even teach you to dance!

Fuck the sig.

ShibbOleth · July 2, 2002, 4:40pm

It’s sort of like the War Powers Act or the Volstead Act. Only different.

UncleBeer · July 2, 2002, 5:00pm

Apparently. Even weirder, it’s administered by a branch of the Florida Depatment of Agriculture. Mashed Potato, anyone?

http://doacs.state.fl.us/onestop/cs/dance.html
http://www.800helpfla.com/501_143_dance.html

RickJay · July 2, 2002, 6:04pm

Folks, if your elderly parents answer “Yes” or “Maybe” to the question “Would you spend $100,000 on dance lessons?” it’s time to get power of attorney.

ResIpsaLoquitor · July 2, 2002, 6:32pm

We studied a famous case like this one in my contracts class last year, Vokes v. Arthur Murray, Inc., 212 So.2d 906 (1968). And guess what? It’s a Florida case. The case’s fact pattern plainly describes how the poor woman was milked out of her money:

Plaintiff Mrs. Audrey E. Vokes, a widow of 51 years and without family, had a yen to be “an accomplished dancer” with the hopes of finding “new interest in life”. So, on February 10, 1961, a dubious fate, with the assist of a motivated acquaintance, procured her to attend a “dance party” at Davenport’s “School of Dancing” where she whiled away the pleasant hours, sometimes in a private room, absorbing his accomplished sales technique, during which her grace and poise [**2] were elaborated upon and her rosy future as “an excellent dancer” was painted for her in vivid and glowing colors. As an incident to this interlude, he sold her eight 1/2-hour dance lessons to be utilized within one calendar month therefrom, for the sum of $ 14.50 cash in hand paid, obviously a baited “come-on”.

Thus she embarked upon an almost endless pursuit of the terpsichorean art during which, over a period of less than sixteen months, she was sold fourteen “dance courses” totalling in the aggregate 2302 hours of dancing lessons for a total cash outlay of $ 31,090.45, all at Davenport’s dance emporium. All of these fourteen courses were evidenced by execution of a written “Enrollment Agreement - Arthur Murray’s School of Dancing” with the addendum in heavy black print, “No one will be informed that you are taking dancing lessons. Your relations with us are held in strict confidence”, setting forth the number of “dancing lessons” and the “lessons in rhythm sessions” currently sold to her from time to time, and always of course accompanied by payment of cash of the realm.

The case goes on to describe how she was consistently given false praise while simultaneoulsy being offered membership in better programs. By the end of the story, she was up to over 1600 hours of unused classes. But hey, they made her a “gold member” at the dance studio. (Hmmm…I wonder if this case inspired the Dance Stuido Act.)

gigi · July 2, 2002, 7:26pm

Maybe I’m cold-hearted, but if you live on Social Security and max out your credit cards to spend $30K on dance lessons, I can’t feel too bad about it.

What were you thinking?!

Guinastasia · July 2, 2002, 7:52pm

Yeah, that sounds fishy. I mean, I feel bad, but COME ON! How stupid can you be?

voguevixen · July 2, 2002, 8:35pm

As I understand it, there is the initial fee for the lessons, then there end up being fees to enter contests, etc, then there are costume, travel and lodging fees tacked on to that, etc. So it’s not like they say “$10,000 for dance lessons? Sure that sounds reasonable!” They sign up for the lessons then get strong-armed into the other stuff because it’s hidden in fine print and the instructors are slimy sweet-talkin’ pimp-types who give the lonely little old ladies the impression that they’re in a romantic relationship and are going to “score” with the young(ish) handsome instructor on these overnight trips. Bleah. Yeah, scum pretty much sums it up.

ShibbOleth · July 2, 2002, 8:36pm

You know, my grandmother is 83 years old. She lives alone for about 8 years now since my grandfather passed away. She was once young and beautiful. Now she is still beautiful to me, but in a different kind of way. She can be feisty, but it’s a huge exaggeration to say that she is as sharp as she once was. In the evenings she can get confused and tends to forget things.

Now I don’t know that she wouldn’t smack one of these guys in the mouth if they tried to pull this crap with her, but then again she might be charmed, initially, and perhaps later, scared. Maybe embarrassed that a grown woman could make some mistake by signing a contract for a little too much money. Certainly confused at this point. This guy is her friend, after all, isn’t he, and he has always been so nice to her before. Reminded her of how beautiful she is and doesn’t she just dance better than all of the other ladies, why she is just a step away from being the best.

These creeps are preying on the loneliness and sometimes helplessness of older people. They are skilled at finding the weak and the lonely. They are charming, but at a turn can be ruthless. They know how to work someone’s conceits against them. Yes, old people like to feel good about themselves, too, and they push that button. And in some cases I am sure that the victims involved had no idea what they were signing on for or getting into. I don’t believe that thinking is the issue here.

Guinastasia · July 2, 2002, 8:44pm

Okay, now I understand.

I thought they signed up for dance lessons paying up front. Never mind.