HARRISBURG – Charges have been filed against a former Clearfield County video store owner.
Attorney General Tom Corbett Thursday announced that criminal charges were filed against Ricardo “Rick” Girardi, 48, of Curwensville for allegedly filing a false insurance claim that included $6,000 worth of items that were damaged, destroyed or inside Video Stars after a water pipe burst damaging the premises.
Corbett said Girardi no longer owns the store, located on State Street in Curwensville. Agents with the Attorney General’s Insurance Fraud Section charged Girardi with one count each of insurance fraud and criminal attempt theft by deception.
According to information from the attorney general, Girardi, on Sept. 29, 2005, filed an insurance claim with St. Paul Travelers Insurance Co. for water damage to his store that were the result of a burst pipe in the apartment located directly above his store. The pipe broke on Sept. 24, 2005, and Girardi does not own the building and filed the claim under his commercial renter’s policy.
Girardi allegedly told the insurance agent who inspected the premises that he had thrown out everything that was water-damaged and claimed that his costs to repair and replace what was damaged or destroyed totaled $14,000.
Despite his initial claim for $14,000, Girardi allegedly told the insurance agent that other items not listed in his claim were damaged and that he would be satisfied with receiving a check for $18,000. The complaint states Girardi allegedly promised the insurance agent that “he’d go away” after receiving the money.
According to investigators, the insurance agent said the store suffered water damage, however, it was not as extensive as allegedly reported by the defendant. Girardi received a check from St. Paul Travelers in the amount of $4,451 to replace the carpet, paint and other renovations that he had completed.
The charges state that Girardi claimed that the damage was not limited to carpet and paint but included the loss of 1,000 videotapes or DVDs that were immediately hauled away, plus two cash registers, two adding machines, a small refrigerator, movie T-shirts, four chairs, candy, candles, two video games, a tape cleaner/rewinder, a microwave, two televisions and two game rental systems, which had a total value of more than $6,000.
Corbett said the insurance agent told investigators that she became suspicious of the claim at that point and referred it to her special investigative section.
The complaint states that subsequent interviews with former employees of Girardi stated that some ceiling tiles had fallen, causing water damage to the counter, cash register and a box of old movies on the floor, however, the large quantity of tapes and DVDs that were reported damaged or destroyed by Girardi were not wet and remained on the store shelves.
The former employees also claimed that many of the items reported damaged or destroyed by Girardi never existed or were not sold in the store.
Additionally, the complaint claims that Girardi, at the time of the incident, was negotiating the sale of his business. The prospective buyers said they knew ceiling tiles were damaged but were unaware of the “flood” caused from a water leak until they took possession of the property Oct. 10, 2005. They claimed that Girardi never told them that store property or other items, which were negotiated as part of the sale, had been damaged, hauled away or missing from the inventory and reported in the insurance claim.
Girardi was preliminarily arraigned on one felony count each of insurance fraud and criminal attempt theft by deception before Clearfield Magisterial District Judge Richard A. Ireland and released on his own recognizance. A preliminary hearing was scheduled for Wednesday but that hearing has now been continued until Nov. 1.
The case will be prosecuted in Clearfield County by Senior Deputy Attorney General Dennis Kistler of the Attorney General’s Insurance Fraud Section in Pittsburgh.