Hoboken Man Who Swindled Dead Friend's Mother Learns Fate: Feds

HUDSON COUNTY, NJ — A former Hoboken resident who promised to invest more than $1 million of acquaintances' money — then spent it on gambling and other costs — received his sentence on Thursday, federal officials said.

Anthony Petrosino, 61, of Union City, will serve 63 months for defrauding elderly clients and others by falsely telling them he'd invest their money, said the office of U.S. Attorney Robert Frazer.

He had pleaded guilty in federal court on March 25 to a count of wire fraud.

Prosecutors charged that from January 2016 through November 2024, Petrosino convinced victims to transfer investment funds, mortgage payments, and other money to himself, claiming he'd invest it.

He even falsified documents to show an elderly woman that he had deposited money in investment accounts in her name, prosecutors said.

Instead, he used clients' money for gambling, credit card payments, and rent on his luxury apartment, prosecutors say.

According to the indictment in the case, after a friend of his in Wyckoff passed away in 2015, he defrauded the man's mother and daughter. He also defrauded a friend in Westwood who was a federal worker, and a relative in Hoboken, the indictment said.

Petrosino will also have to pay up to $1.1 million back to the victims.