Opinion ID: 2560072
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Francis Alessandro

Text: On February 19, 2007, the Commission served a complaint upon Francis Alessandro containing two charges of misconduct. The charges alleged that Francis filed materially incomplete financial disclosure statements with the Ethics Commission, and submitted loan applications to mortgage brokers that omitted various assets and liabilities. Following the joint hearing, the referee issued a report sustaining both charges, and the matter proceeded to oral argument before the Commission. In its determination dated February 11, 2009, the Commission concluded that Francis should be removed from office. One member of the Commission dissented as to the sanction and voted to censure Francis. Francis has been a Judge of the New York City Civil Court, Bronx County, since 1990. Prior to becoming a judge, he engaged in the private practice of law with his brother, Joseph. Their practice included real estate law. Francis testified that he co-signed the handwritten note and mortgage in August 2003 as an accommodation to his brother. He believed the Battista loan was primarily Joseph's responsibility, but acknowledged that his signature made him an obligor on the note. Francis testified that he did not learn of the typewritten note and mortgage until early 2005, when Battista named him as a defendant in her foreclosure action.
On July 7, 2004, Francis filed a financial disclosure statement for calendar year 2003 with the Ethics Commission. He failed to disclose the following assets and liabilities: (1) the mortgage Battista held on the Valhalla property; (2) a mortgage held by GreenPoint on a Bronx property he jointly owned with Joseph; (3) his one-half interest in the Valhalla property; and (4) his one-half interest in a property in Pelham. Francis failed to disclose the same assets and liabilities on his financial disclosure statement for calendar year 2004. He testified that his failure to disclose the Battista mortgage was negligent. He also stated that he omitted the Battista mortgage because it was his brother's obligation and it was an unrecorded instrument.
As noted above, Francis and Joseph submitted three joint loan applications to Global Equity Funding in 2004 and, in 2005, they completed three loan applications with Moses Rambarran. The Global Equity applications failed to list the Battista mortgage, one property owned individually by Francis, and various properties he owned jointly with Joseph. Francis testified that he did not disclose the Battista mortgage on the Global Equity loan applications because it was unrecorded. Francis also represented in these applications that he was not a co-maker or endorser on a note. Similarly, the loan applications processed by Moses Rambarran did not list one property owned individually by Francis and several properties owned jointly by the brothers. Two of these applications contained no reference to the Battista mortgage; one application acknowledged the $250,000 lien on the Valhalla property, but did not identify Battista. On all three applications, Francis represented that he was not a co-maker or endorser on a note and that he was not a party to a lawsuit, even though Battista had named him as a defendant in her action to foreclose on the handwritten mortgage. Before the referee, Francis testified that he gave the mortgage brokers all the information on the phone and relied on them doing what they had to do.