Former Cipriani Executive Sentenced for Fraud
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
The former vice president of the restaurant chain that owns the Rainbow Room was sentenced to 1 1/2 to 4 1/2 years in state prison yesterday for defrauding insurance companies and the Social Security Administration of more than $1 million.
Dennis Pappas falsely claimed that he was disabled with a heart condition and could not work between 2000 and 2006 in order to receive payments from insurance companies and the Social Security Administration. During that time, he collected payments from Cipriani USA totaling more than $891,855. Those payments included the use of a $5,750-a-month apartment and a Humvee.
Cipriani USA owns the Rainbow Room at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, as well as Cipriani 42nd Street at 110 E. 42nd St., Harry Cipriani at 781 Fifth Ave., and Downtown Cipriani at 376 West Broadway.
Pappas, 60, made a deal with prosecutors on May 2 to plead guilty to second-degree attempted insurance fraud. As a part of the sentence, he must also repay the insurance companies and the Social Security Administration.
The fraud is not the first time Pappas has run afoul of the law. In 1998, he was sentenced to 46 months in prison for income tax evasion, racketeering, and laundering money for the Colombo crime family.
