Montauk Man Accused Of Stealing $325,000 From Customers, Payroll

A Montauk businessman was arrested on Monday, June 6, and charged with grand larceny for what the Suffolk County district attorney’s office said was the theft of more than $325,000 from some of his customers and a payroll company.

Mark Ripolone, 34, has owned several businesses in the hamlet over the last decade, including a taxi company, a food delivery service, and a beach services company that set up “luxury” beach chair arrangements and beach fires for customers.

Investigators working for District Attorney Raymond Tierney’s office say that Ripolone stole $168,000 between September 2018 and October 15, 2021, by obtaining bank account information and routing numbers from businesses that he delivered food from and then using that information to make electronic withdrawals from the accounts. He used the pilfered money to pay credit card bills, his home mortgage and other personal expenses, the D.A.’s office said.

He is also alleged to have stolen $160,000 from a payroll company, Paychex, by transferring money taken in by his businesses directly to his own personal accounts, rather than to reimburse the payroll company for salaries paid to his employees.

“This defendant allegedly financially exploited his customers, most of them small businesses, to steal funds from their bank accounts and allegedly took money from a payroll company to pay for employees who did not exist,” Tierney said in a statement released by his office on Monday evening. “Thanks to our joint investigation with the East Hampton Town Police Department, the Sag Harbor Village Police Department and the New York State Police, this defendant will no longer be in a position to con others out of their hard-earned money.”

The D.A. said that Ripolone surrendered to Sag Harbor Village Police on Monday morning. He was arraigned in East Hampton Town Justice Court and released on his own recognizance. He is charged with three counts of grand larceny in the second degree and two counts of grand larceny in the third degree, all felonies. He is due back in court on July 7.

The investigation into the case was a collaborative effort by detectives from East Hampton Town Police Department, the Sag Harbor Village Police Department, New York State Police and the Suffolk County D.A.’s office.

Police have asked anyone who thinks they may have been victimized by Ripolone to contact the D.A.’s office at 631-853-5602.

Ripolone did not respond to a request for comment on Monday.

Ripolone owned Ditch Plains Taxi, the food delivery service 123 Delivery, and Hampton Management Group, the beach services company.

In 2019, he was charged with felony assault after an altercation with a would-be patron of his taxi business in which a man claimed Ripolone punched him several times in the face and shocked him with a stun gun.

Last year, Ripolone’s beach services company ran afoul of the town on numerous occasions for operating a commercial business on public property. Hampton Beach Services, which started renting and setting up beach chairs and umbrellas on beaches in Montauk in 2015, was cited for “peddling without a permit” several times over the summer in 2021.

The company spurred outrage when it set up a large arrangement of chairs at Indian Wells Beach in Amagansett, at the same time a junior lifeguard tournament was taking place — several parents complaining that it appeared the company was “reserving” a section of beach for well-heeled patrons who wouldn’t arrive until hours later.

The town granted Hampton Beach Services a permit to set up beach fires for customers after Ripolone made the case that allowing the company to handle the logistics would mean that all of the town’s rules about containing the fire, extinguishing it properly and removing the burned debris would be followed. The company charges $725 for the service, for up to 10 people.

But the permit came with the stipulation that HBS halt its daytime beach chair services.

Four days after the permit was granted, the company was issued another summons for setting up chairs on a public beach.