Crime Doesn't Pay

Faith Eggers — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 16:00:44 -0400

How does a man once worth an estimated $10 million find himself broke, in divorce court, donning a jail uniform and begging his ex-wife for money? Well, with any luck, he wouldn't. But it doesn't seem that luck has been on the side of 72-year-old Ronald Miserendino lately.

After leaving his first wife and their six children on the east coast, Miserendino moved to Milwaukee. It was there that he met his second wife, Cynthia Son, when she came and applied for the job of his housekeeper. Within six months they were married and they had three children in four years. Wow, these kids moved kind fast.

In 2001, after 22 years of marriage, Cynthia filed for divorce and that's where Miserendino's problems seem to have began.

He refused to accept the service of his divorce papers, and with the help of his son, Mark, set out to secretly liquidate his company's assets and go underground.

The effort involved taking out a bank loan for $5 million, a $500,000 advance on the company's line of credit, and cashing in Treasury bonds worth more than $10 million, according to court records. Miserendino then gave the $5 million from the bank loan to his son. Mark got smaller cashier's checks and sent them to his father, who was secretly in Hawaii, where his company owned a house and two lots.

The divorce was granted and courts awarded Cynthia $5 million, but the money was gone.

In November 2005, after living with a girlfriend secretly in Hawaii and failing in an attempt at bankruptcy, Miserendino moved back to the mainland, where he was quickly arrested when his federal warrant showed up during a routine traffic stop. He is still awaiting sentencing.

firstwivesworld - Crime Doesn't Pay - Comments

Crime Doesn't Pay