Camera, quickly told him, “No! I will speak with you after the hearing.”Ĭamera could not be reached for comment after the hearing.Īccording to an FBI affidavit, an investigation found no record of “Lepage Catering” being incorporated in Rhode Island – or anywhere else.īut Diogenes opened accounts with three food distribution companies – Performance Food Group, Reinhart Food Service, and U.S. 13, Diogenes asked, “Can I say something?” His lawyer, Frank D. But given that Diogenes allegedly assaulted a federal officer, rammed into FBI vehicles, moved from one hotel to another for more than a week to avoid authorities, “there is absolutely no question he poses an extreme risk of flight and should be held,” Vilker said.Īt one point in the Zoom hearing on Aug. Vilker said prosecutors were going to argue that he remain behind bars while the case is pending that based on his criminal record alone. He has two warrants for his arrest in Massachusetts, authorities said.Īssistant US Attorney Lee H. They said he is a "compulsive liar" who "has always struggled to tell the truth."Ĭopyright (c) 2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.According to court records, Diogenes has “an extensive criminal history” that includes charges such as theft by deception, forgery, identity theft, and counterfeit checks. In arguing for a long sentence, prosecutors said Diogenes had a long history of fraud, writing phony checks and of resisting arrest. In court filings, Diogenes' lawyer said his client had long struggled with drug and alcohol addiction as well as mental health issues. He pleaded guilty in December to wire fraud and assaulting a federal officer. Marshals caught up with Diogenes at a Massachusetts motel nine days later, with over $150,000 in cash on him. When the FBI caught wind and tried to arrest him, prosecutors say Dioegenes used his car to ram several investigators' vehicles and a delivery van in the parking lot of the food wholesaler where he was working, and managed to escape. In all, prosecutors say Dioegenes stole $830,000 worth of food, which he then resold through the food wholesaler he was involved with, sometimes right back to the restaurants whose accounts he had used.
Over a nine-month period, prosecutors say Diogenes, who was going by the name Paul Dejullio, made orders for lobster, shrimp, scallops, sea bass, wild boar and rib eye steaks, using the restaurants' account info. It was through this relationship that Diogenes was able to steal the bank details of multiple area restaurants from the checks they used to buy food. Prosecutors say Diogenes not only set up the phony business, LePage Catering, he wormed his way into a partnership with an East Providence fish wholesaler. "This was a sophisticated fraudulent scheme that could only have been effectuated by an intelligent and cunning defendant who has a long and troubling history of committing fraud," prosecutors wrote in court papers.Ī message left with Dioegenes' attorney wasn't immediately returned. In late 2020, prosecutors say Dioegenes turned to identity theft for his most ambitious scam yet, setting up a phony catering business using a former co-worker's stolen identity. His scams became so outrageous that he was once featured in Boston Magazine for finagling his way into the general manager job of a posh Boston eatery where he was later charged with fraud. Paul Diogenes, 50, had spent most of his life around restaurants and once worked as a cook, but 20 years ago began a spate of frauds involving phony checks and selling stolen goods, federal prosecutors said. This fishy scheme has landed a seafood scammer a 10-year term upriver.Ī one-time aspiring chef-turned fraudster has been sentenced to a decade behind bars for using stolen bank information from Rhode Island restaurants to buy $830,000 worth of lobster, shrimp and steaks which he then resold, sometimes to the businesses he had just ripped off, federal prosecutors said. Paul Diogenes used stolen bank info from Rhode Island restaurants to buy pricey delicacies which he then sold back to the eateries he had defrauded.
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