Shortly before his client was scheduled to be released on a stunning $20 million bail posting, a lawyer for Tonino Solimine of Rumson told a federal judge on Long Island yesterday that the oil-trucking company owner was shutting the business down, Newsday is reporting.
Solimine, owner of T&S Trucking of Brooklyn, was indicted last month on federal charges othat he was involved in a $75 million scheme to cheat heating oil customers through rigged meters on delivery trucks.
The disclosure that Solimine was planning to close his company’s doors came during a hearing in federal court on Long Island that also yielded some colorful details about Solimine’s arrest.
From the story:
Judge Joanna Seybert agreed to release Solimine on bail despite [federal prosecutor Burton] Ryan saying that more than $1 million in cash had been found in his home, and that when federal agents came to arrest him he dashed out the back door in the direction of a 50-foot yacht moored at a backyard dock. Agents subdued Solimine, but his attorneys scoffed at the idea that he planned to escape by yacht.
Monmouth County property records show a Tonino Solimine, Sr. and Helen Solimine owning a 2.7-acre property at 49 Shrewsbury Drive in Rumson assessed at $5.05 million.
Solimine’s lawyer, Jeffrey Lichtman, said his client “planned to concentrate on two other business he operates in the constuction and trucking industries,” Newsday reported.
T&S’s office manager, Eston Clare, 63, of Brooklyn, was scheduled to be released on $10 million bail, Newsday says.
