I have to give it up for this guy - clever, daring, innovative and fabulous! 49yo Thomas Prusik Parkin impersonated his dead mother in drag to collect over $100,000 in Social Security and other government benefits and subsides. His mother died in 2003! They call him the DragNut!
A Brooklyn man who police said dressed in drag to impersonate his dead mother and collect $115,000 in Social Security check and rent subsidies was indicted Wednesday on 47 counts of grand larceny, forgery and conspiracy. Thomas Prusik-Parkin's alleged accomplice, Mhilton Rimolo, was also indicted and both men face up to 25 years in prison if they're convicted.
They pleaded not guilty at their arraignment and were each ordered held on $1 million bail.
"Mark Twain said truth is stranger than fiction and this is a great example of that," Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes said. "What the investigators uncovered was shocking." Prusik-Parkin's six-year scam came to a crashing end on Monday when the 49-year-old from Park Slope was arrested.
"He said he's not Norman Bates," Hynes said, referring to the twisted character from the movie "Psycho" who dons his dead mother's clothing. "This guy is not stupid, this guy is very smart. His schemes were brilliant." Prusik-Parkin's alleged scam began in 2003 when his mother, Irene Prusik, died at age 73.
Her son allegedly gave the funeral director the wrong Social Security number and date of birth for his mother so that her death would not be registered in government databases. He began collecting $700 a month in Social Security in her name, in addition to his own disability checks, sources said.
Authorities said Prusik-Parkin also posed as his mother to file for bankruptcy so "she" would be eligible for $39,000 in city subsidies to help pay rent on a Park Slope apartment. To help in the ruse, Prusik-Parkin enlisted Rimolo, 47, to pose as Irene's nephew, help the "ailing aunt" get around town, cash government checks and assist in property transactions, prosecutors said.
On April 29, for example, Rimolo was with "Irene" when she renewed a driver's license in Coney Island.
Banks, courts and federal and city agencies were taken in again and again - but the Brooklyn district attorney's rackets squad wasn't fooled.
When investigators showed up to interview Irene Prusik in May, they encountered an elderly "woman" in a red dress and dark sunglasses, sources said. "She was also wearing an oxygen mask," Hynes said.
Michael Vecchione, who heads the Rackets Bureau, said Prusik-Parkin also "wore a scarf around his neck that would prevent us from seeing his Adam's apple."
But there were other clues. "He has rather large hands," Vecchione said of Prusik-Parkin. Rimolo was at "her" side and told investigators Irene's son couldn't speak to them because he wasn't home. Prosecutors were tipped by the man who actually owns the home where Prusik-Parkin lives, a $2.2 million brownstone building that appears to be at the center of a massive fraud. In 1996, Irene Prusik deeded the home at 492 Sixth Ave. to her son, according to city records. He took out a $200,000 mortgage to bankroll a real estate investment business that failed. He stopped making mortgage payments, the house went into foreclosure and it was bought by Samir Chopra in 2003. To hold onto the brownstone and avoid eviction, Prusik-Parkin posed as his mother to file a suit alleging that he had forged the 1996 deed transfer, investigators allege. He even filed an affidavit from a nonexistent son. Link
Do I see a MOVIE in the making?????
Yes, this man has committed a crime. Yes, he embezzled over $100,000 so he needs to face the justice system.
But I find it hard not to laugh at his innovation in commiting this fraud.
And when we laugh, its doesn't make one furious at his actions. You kinda feel abit sorry for him.
I wonder if he will wear that same sequence red dress to court.
Hopefully he will remember to accessorizes but don't overdo it!
