$20 million insurance fraud trial against Buckingham socialite starts

Posted: January 15, 2019

Millions and greed.

Those are the two words that Pennsylvania Senior Deputy Attorney General Linda Montag and Philadelphia defense attorney Jack McMahon agreed are critical elements in the criminal case against Claire Risoldi, the politically connected Buckingham socialite accused of participating in a $20 million insurance fraud scheme related to fire damage at her 10-acre estate.

Claire Risoldi, center in red

But the attorneys applied the words in vastly different ways during their opening arguments Tuesday at the Bucks County Justice Center in Doylestown in Risoldi’s long-awaited trial.

Montag told jurors that Risoldi enjoyed a lavish lifestyle worthy of the Kardashian family, but still wanted more. And she wanted insurance company AIG to pay for it.

“Greed is what she is,” she said.

McMahon countered that the case is about millions of dollars, but that it’s money owed his client who is being victimized by a “huge, infamous” insurance company that took her money to insure $10 million in still-missing jewelry and now doesn’t want to pay.

“That is why we are here. That is the whole reason we are here,” McMahon said. “It’s about the millions of dollars (AIG) tried to weasel out of.”

Chester County Senior Judge Thomas Gavin is overseeing what is expected to be a two-week trial for the 71-year-old Risoldi, who was indicted four years ago on charges including insurance fraud, witness intimidation, receiving stolen property and forgery. Before opening arguments, Gavin told jurors that while they will hear testimony about fires at the Stony Hill Road home known as Clairemont, there is no evidence of arson and it should not be a factor in their consideration of the charges against Risoldi.

Prosecutors say they’ll show that Risoldi used false receipts, appraisals and other documents and lied under oath to bilk AIG out of $20 million in fraudulent and inflated insurance claims in 2009, 2010 and 2013 to fund her lavish lifestyle that included exotic cars and multiple homes.

The family also claimed volunteer firefighters stole jewelry valued at $10 million during the 2013 blaze, an allegation that has since been found to be false. All but three pieces of the jewelry remain missing, according to the family, which has filed a federal civil suit against AIG, which is refusing to pay the claim.

“You will learn a lot about how an insurance claim is made,” Montag told the jury of 11 men and one woman. “Claim plus a lie equals insurance fraud.”

Evidence will show the family upped the insurance coverage on the jewelry from $100,000 on two pieces to $10 million on 55 pieces six weeks before the 2013 fire, Montag said. The appraisals valuing the jewelry at $10 million also were allegedly falsified, the prosecutor said, citing the misspelling of the word jewelry 21 times, and blank and altered appraisal sheets found at Risoldi’s Danielle Drive home while executing a search warrant.

McMahon portrayed AIG as a “greedy” corporation that only pays claims when it is forced, but had no qualms cashing the $128,000 premium check Risoldi gave them to insure the jewelry. After the family reported the jewelry missing in 2013, AIG didn’t help them recover it, but instead enlisted the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office to go after the insured, referring to Claire Risoldi.

“AIG never intended to look for one piece of jewelry,” McMahon said. “If they found one piece of this jewelry ... then the narrative this jewelry didn’t exist is gone.”

McMahon told jurors that the $10 million in jewelry was kept in six bank safety deposit boxes, which Claire Risoldi’s son, Carl Risoldi, was asked to retrieve in October 2013, which records and video will show happened. Claire Risoldi wanted the jewelry to pick out pieces to wear for a political fundraiser turned surprise wedding at Clairemont held roughly a week before the fire, McMahon said.

A defense witness will show photos taken the day of the fire, and later enhanced, that show the two bags containing the jewelry on a chair in the foyer of Clairemont, as the family contends, McMahon said.

McMahon told jurors that Claire’s late first husband, Carl, made “lots” of cash in the tile and marble business and the family lived lavishly long before the first insurance claims were filed. The $375,000 in claims Risoldi collected in 1984, 1993 and 2002 amounted to $18,500 a year — an amount that would last Claire Risoldi “two weeks” with her lifestyle, he said.