Staten Island Man Stole Freehold Couple’s Mortgage Payments, Prosecutor Says

A Staten Island man is accused of stealing three years’ worth of a Freehold couple’s mortgage payments and filing for bankruptcy in the husband’s name to forestall a foreclosure action, Acting Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni announced Tuesday.

Mario Coniglione, 50, of Staten Island was arrested Friday and charged with theft, failure to make required disposition of property received, identity theft, forgery and falsifying or tampering with records.

An investigation by the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office Special Prosecutions Bureau and the Wall Township Police Department revealed that the couple retained Coniglione and his company, Regency Consulting, LLC, in 2010 to help them obtain a mortgage modification from their lender, according to a press release.

Coniglione allegedly had the couple redirect their monthly mortgage and escrow payments to him as their mortgage lender’s “broker.” Despite making regular monthly mortgage payments to Coniglione from November 2010 to July 2013, payments were not being made to the couple’s mortgage and their lender initiated foreclosure proceedings, according to the release.

Coniglione allegedly posed as the husband and attempted to file an emergency bankruptcy petition to stay the foreclosure proceedings against the couple’s home.

Coniglione is being held in the Monmouth County Correctional Institution on $75,000 bail with no option to post 10 percent of the bond.