'I'm a very flawed man': Man who forged letters to court gets 6½ years

One letter described a scene where the defendant was so kind that, for an afternoon, he took in a one-legged man standing outside in the cold in the Strip District.

They stopped at a shop, and Randy Frasinelli bought the man a hoodie and sweatpants, then he took him home, made him lunch, and let him shower, before giving the man $200 and driving him to a homeless shelter.

The letter concluded: “Nobody, but myself, the homeless man and our good God Almighty would know of this story as I know for a fact Randy did not tell another soul.

“I am telling you now, your honor, so that you might know the depth of kindness and goodness in this man who stands before you at your courtroom.”

Not only was the letter fabricated, the FBI said, but its date - Aug. 25, 2020 — was before Frasinelli was even charged with a crime.

That letter — and 12 others like it — were used by federal prosecutors on Wednesday in arguing for a longer sentence for Frasinelli, who, in October, pleaded guilty to two of the 21 counts against him, including bank fraud and money laundering.

U.S. District Judge W. Scott Hardy ordered Frasinelli, 66, to serve 6½ years in federal prison, as well as five years of supervised release. He must also pay restitution totaling $3.9 million.

Although Frasinelli asked for permission to self-report to begin serving his prison term, which is common in federal court, Hardy denied the request.

The U.S. marshals took the defendant into custody in the courtroom.

The government said that Frasinelli, of Scott, used fraudulent payroll reports and tax records to apply for five separate covid-19 pandemic relief paycheck protection loans totaling $3.8 million.

One of the loans, prosecutors said, was submitted after he’d already been arrested and released on bond.

Frasinelli applied for the loans using the names of four different companies, all with the name Grant-Williams in the title.

However, the state Department of Revenue said there are no business entity records for any of them.

Frasinelli then used the money he received to pay for luxury cars, gold bars, jewelry, art and firearms, as well as college tuition for a family member.

At the sentencing hearing on Wednesday, FBI Special Agent Sean Langford testified that he was immediately suspicious of the 14 character letters Frasinelli submitted.

“A lot of the signatures looked the same,” he said.

Many of them didn’t mention the court proceedings at all, and many of them predated the charges, the agent continued.

Langford and two other federal agents investigated the letters’ authenticity.

Thirteen of them had been fabricated, he said. For the 14th letter, the agents were unable to locate the writer, who is allegedly in Mexico.

Among the claims in the letters that Langford said are untrue: That Frasinelli graduated from Leadership Pittsburgh; that he was a founding member of Three Rivers Rowing Association; that he has a master’s degree from Cornell; and that he has a Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon.

When he addressed the court, Frasinelli said that the letters represent who he is.

“I’m a very flawed man with a good soul,” he said. “My recent actions were not to, in any way, diminish the court or mislead anyone.”

Instead, Frasinelli said it was too hard for him to contact people to ask for letters of support.

“I could not bring myself to reach out to people I have not talked to for years,” he said.

Frasinelli told the court he served on 11 different nonprofit boards during his career and has donated to many charities.

“I view myself as a good man stuck in a negative cycle of my behavior,” he said.

It was the collapse of his business, after 30 years, Frasinelli said, that led to his downfall, and that he didn’t understand the ramifications of his behavior.

“I still believe I’m a greater asset to society outside of a correctional institution,” Frasinelli said. “I am not a threat to society in any capacity.”

But Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Bengel urged the court to not only sentence the defendant to federal prison, but to increase his guidelines range because of the fraudulent letters.

“Submitting forged letters to get a more lenient sentence,” Bengel said, “is black letter obstruction of justice.”

He argued that Frasinelli should not receive the benefit of a reduction for pleading guilty.

Defense attorney Rachael Santoriella, whose motion to withdraw from representing Frasinelli because of the fraudulent letters was denied, argued to the judge that her client was cooperative with investigators from the beginning.

“He has indicated from day one he accepted responsibility for what he had done,” she said.

But Hardy found that the defendant tendered “fictitious fabrications” to the court, and that he engaged in “extremely deceptive conduct.”

Because of that behavior, the judge increased Frasinelli’s sentencing guidelines range from 63 to 78 months to 78 to 96 months.

“The court lost a sense of trust in you by submitting those letters to me,” Hardy told the defendant. “I take those letters very seriously because they give me a window into who you are.”

Santoriella tried to lessen her client’s culpability by citing his mental illness — which include diagnoses of bipolar disorder and manic compulsive behavior.

“What he did, yes, was serious,” she said. But, she continued, “A lot of it was driven by his manic, compulsive behavior.”

Santoriella told the court that if Frasinelli received a sentence at the high end of his guidelines, it would be tantamount to a life prison term.

But the government argued that there is likely a pattern of conduct by Frasinelli bigger than the current case.

“Mr. Frasinelli tried everything in his power to lie, cheat and steal his way out of this case,” Bengel said. “That culminated with his trying to deceive this court.”

Even Frasinelli’s statement to the court, Bengel said, was “‘really, I’m a good guy, give me a break.’

“Start to finish, this is the same sense of entitlement that’s been present since the beginning of this case.”

The judge told Frasinelli that the loans he stole were supposed to help keep businesses afloat during an unprecedented, difficult time.

“They were intended to help businesses maintain payroll,” the judge said. “You defrauded banks of money designed to help people in need.”