New Haven Independent

The story begins with the last wishes of Margaret Amrich, an elderly widow who lived at 18 Cottage St. in East Rock. In her will, she left instructions for her worldly possessions to be donated to a charitable cause: All proceeds of the sale of her home should go “for the benefit and care of crippled children,” and children with cancer, in a fund administered by The Community Foundation of Greater New Haven.

To carry out her wishes as executor of her will, Amrich appointed New Haven/Branford-based attorney Gabriel H. Cusanelli (pictured above at left). She named no inheritors.

When Amrich died on Feb. 7, 2005, at 86 years old, Cusanelli happened to be forming a new business partnership.

Partners

The very same day Amrich died at the Hospital of St. Raphael, Cusanelli set up a partnership with realtor Mark Perez and wheelin’-and-dealin’ Sal Brancati (pictured), a former city development chief who left City Hall in 2000 in the wake of manifold controversies about loans he had given out.

Cusanelli, Brancati and Perez together formed the partnership, called PCB Ventures, LLC, Cusanelli said Thursday. Records show it was formed on Feb. 7, 2005, the very day Amrich passed away. (LLC records enable partners to hide their identities. Only one member or “agent” is required to be listed. In this case, it was Cusanelli.)

Cusanelli and Perez bought and sold real estate together. They purchased a property at 33-35 Gibbs St., for instance. That same year they transferred ownership of that property to PCB Ventures for $1; they eventually flipped the property, selling it for $385,000.

Cusanelli also “represented Mark on some of the properties we bought and sold,” Sal Brancati said Thursday.

The business partners had plans for Amrich’s Cottage Street home, too, which Cusanelli was in charge of selling.

Flipping 18 Cottage St.

First they took care of the legal trail showing them to be currently in business together: On March 16, 2006, less than a month before the two were to close on the property, they dissolved PCB Ventures LLC. Attorney Cusanelli, assigned to protect Amrich’s wishes to squeeze every penny out of the home to be donated to crippled children, then sold the home to his business partners, Brancati and Perez, on April 12, 2006, for a price of $250,000.

Now Brancati and Perez are turning around and reselling the property — seeking to make $129,900 on the home that would go to them, not to the children’s fund. One year later, they’ve put it on the market and listed it for $379,900.

Brancati, contacted Thursday, professed ignorance of the whole affair: What PCB Ventures is, how much he bought the house for, and the fact that the house is now for sale. A sign outside says, “For Rent.” He said Mark Perez, a plumber by trade, handles the details of their joint real-estate investments. “I’ve known Mark since I was a kid,” Brancati said. But asked how to reach Perez, Brancati claimed, “I don’t know what number to get him at.” He said he has known Cusanelli for “a few years.”

The Most Viable Purchaser

Cusanelli, leaning against the counter at New Haven Probate Court Thursday, denied purposefully diverting funds from the crippled children’s fund so his business partners could make a profit. He said he merely sold the home through an independent party and ended his involvement with the property there.

Cusanelli said he didn’t choose to sell the Cottage Street duplex to his business buddies “” he let an independent realtor make that decision. He hired Robert Sacco of Sacco Vollero Realty Group LLC in Orange to sell the home. Sacco (pictured at right) said he got three bids on the home, and sold to the highest bidder. Sacco wouldn’t say whom the other bids were from — “That’s private information.”

The transaction drew attention from the Community Foundation of New Haven. The Foundation administers the children’s fund which was designated to receive almost all the proceeds from the woman’s estate (save a $500 donation to an East Rock church). The home is the bulk of the woman’s gift; other assets amounted to only $81,000.

William Ginsberg, who heads the Community Foundation, said he is “concerned” about developments with the estate. “We’re waiting to receive the official accounting from the probate court before we take any action,” he said. “We would make sure within our powers” that her wishes are honored and the money goes toward the “crippled children’s” fund. The Foundation assumed management of the fund in 1986. It currently has about $3 million in assets, according to Ginsberg.

In a Probate Court hearing Thursday to ensure the fiduciary (Cusanelli) properly carried out Amrich’s will, the question came up as to whether Cusanelli ever got an appraisal done before selling the home to his associates for $250,000. Backing up the attorney Thursday, Sacco produced a comparative market study analyzing five sales in the area in 2005. By his calculations, he recommended the house be sold for between $255,000 and $259,000 — well within the ballpark of its final selling price.

So why has the home’s value now grown by 50 percent, according to the selling price offered this week?

Cusanelli said he “wasn’t aware” the home was being resold. He said the new owners must have fixed it up. Brancati did take out a $30,000 construction loan, according to records (on top of the $250,000 he and Perez originally borrowed to buy the house, which equaled the full purchase price). Sacco’s housing evaluation stated the house needed work due to water damage, a leaking oil fixture and a roof in need of replacement.

Cusanelli said he didn’t know further details about the transaction. He denied close association with Brancati and Perez: “I’ve talked to them twice in the last couple years.”

The attorney said he can’t remember why the three formed PCB Ventures, LLC: “I think it might’ve been to sell the Gibbs place.

Why was the LLC was established the very same day Amrich died? Cusanelli shrugged. “The two events are unrelated.”

Why was the LLC dissolved? “I don’t recall.”

Was it appropriate for Cusanelli to sell the home to a business partner like Mark Perez, a man he had gone into business with, a man with whom until a few weeks before he had been joined in an LLC?

“Business partners’ is an inaccurate way of representing it. He was one of a list of people, a number of whom I knew,” who were interested in buying the house, responded the fiduciary of the estate. Perez “seemed to be the most viable purchaser given the circumstances.”

Cusanelli said he sees the partnership through the PCB Ventures as having no bearing on the sale of the home.

As the case proceeds through Probate Court, Judge John A. Keyes (pictured) will decide. Cusanelli was hired to cash out the home for the interest of the children’s fund. “The question is: Did he cash them out correctly?” explained Keyes.

The judge declined to comment directly on the pending case, but made a statement that ensured he’d look closely into the transaction by P, C, and B: “It makes your stomach twist when you hear stuff like this.”

Paul Bass contributed reporting to this story.