The last time we heard the name Vincent Veneziani was several years ago, when he was at Business Insider, a close friend with all of Henry Blodget’s editors and writers, writing stories about Wall Street criminals and frauds such as “Ponzi Schemer Kenneth Starr’s Super Swanky Upper East Side Condo Just Sold For $5.63 Million” and “The Complete Story Of How Lenny Dykstra Went From The Top Of The World To The Jailhouse.” The inherent irony here will become evident in a few moments.
Shortly thereafter the mid-20s Veneziani disappeared from the media world radar, only to write a book, and then reappear in the financial world, this time as an employee of the always entertaining “paid-to-promote-hedge-fund-research” outfit known as Hedgeye, where according to his bio he worked as an Editor.
Unfortunately for Veneziani, he only managed to remain employed at Hedgeye for a little over a year, until the spring of 2013 when things went terribly wrong for the young man, who mysteriously disappeared from the face of the earth for the next several years. The former New Yorker, then reappeared, now as a resident of the poorest city in the US, Camden, NJ, where he wrote the following disturbing story just two months ago on March 9, describing what had happened to him shortly after he left Hedgeye, and Wall Street, for good.
The End of a Long Road of Crime
In May of 2013, I was 27-years-old and had just been laid off from a cushy job on Wall Street that I had worked at for a little over a year. I also was about a year into a full blown heroin addiction that drained me of time, energy, and especially money. I was broke and dope sick and not thinking right. After asking everyone I knew for money and coming up short, I decided to rob a small coffee shop on Broadway in West Harlem that was near my apartment. Not only did I rob the cashier at knifepoint, I hit the same spot two weeks later and did it again because it was so easy. I didn’t even realize I was committing armed robbery because I had never committed a (serious) crime before and had never been arrested save for a sealed and expunged DUI I got when I was 19-years-old.
I thought I was fine but in the first week of June, I was arrested and the detectives had a mountain of evidence against me. The jig was up. Now I had lost my job, apartment, fiance, family and my spirit. It sucked.
I quickly got shipped off to Rikers Island seeing as how I was unable to make $30,000 bail. I would end up spending a total of 18 months on Rikers between 2013 and 2014. It was hell. That place will break any man into pieces and I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.
Thanks to a Legal Aid attorney named Raoul Zaltzberg, who actually gave a shit about my case, and extensive interviews with ADA Tiana Walton and Judge Farber in Manhattan Supreme Court, it was agreed that I was not a menace to society. That yes, I had fucked up royally, but deserved rehabilitation instead of 10 to 30 years upstate in a maximum security prison.
I was given a plea deal that called for 18 months of inpatient and outpatient treatment followed by five years probation. Considering that I was indicted on two counts of First Degree Robbery in Manhattan, this is as good as it gets. Once I completed the 18 months of treatment, the two counts would drop to Third Degree Robbery, a non-violent felony that carries significantly less time and repercussions if rearrested but a felony nonetheless.
Yesterday, Raoul, who is now a private attorney with his own practice (I was one of his first clients and remain loyal to him), Tiana and I walked into Judge Farber’s court and finalized everything. I had completed the 18 months of treatment despite a hiccup or two and would be starting probation. Five long years of being monitored by the state. It’s quite daunting if you think about it: even getting pulled over for a speeding ticket counts as “Police Contact” and can get you jammed up with your PO.
But I fought a long and hard road and lost everything in my life and then some. It’s OK though. I’ve learn to become a better person and in a couple months, I’ll be turning 30-years-old. While getting a decent job has been next to impossible, as has affordable housing, I am lucky enough to have found a woman who loves me for who I am and doesn’t judge me despite my past mistakes and addiction. She is wonderful and nothing short of amazing. I have clothes on my back, gainful employment and even a car to get around South New Jersey and Philadelphia with thanks to my father, who bought it for me knowing that it would improve my chances of succeeding and rebuilding my life. It took me a long time to get over losing a woman I was supposed to marry and my many expensive material objects. I was young, successful, a published author, working in finance and living the dream in New York City. I’m no longer that person, but things happen for a reason and I am fine with all of this change. It’s for the best.
2016 is clearly a year for milestones. I can’t even describe how good it feels to finally close the books on this last chapter of my 20s and to move on to my 30s knowing I no longer have to check in with Judge Farber every 45-50 days and spend tons of money on programs and classes that are designed to be Medicaid profit machines. Like I said, five years of probation is a long time but it’s nothing I can’t handle. I have the tools, I have the support system in place and most importantly, I’m happy.
I didn’t think I would ever be happy again and didn’t deserve to be happy. I was wrong. Here’s to exploring the next chapter of my life and staying out of trouble.
In other words, Vincent is what, according to some Bloomberg “journalists”, would classify as a credible source.
Sarcasm about “competitors” aside, things were about to truly spin out of control for the now 29-year old Veneziani who as it turned out never learned to become a “better person.” Instead he become a grizzled criminal.
The first hint of this was revealed just over a month after Veneziani wrote the above post, on April 23 when the Evesham Township Police department issued the following request for public help to track down a wanted criminal.
Evesham Township Bank Robbed, Public’s Help Needed
The Evesham Police Department is asking for the public’s assistance in identifying a male who robbed the TD Bank, 336 W. Rt. 70 on April 23, 2016, at approximately 1:19pm Saturday afternoon. The white male entered the bank, approached a teller and handed her a note demanding money. The male then fled the bank on foot towards a nearby Wawa parking lot.
If anyone knows the identity of this suspect you are asked to contact the Evesham Police Department at 856-983-1116, the Confidential Tip Line at 856-983-4699 or email at Facebook@Eveshampd.org. Anonymous tips text ETPDTIP to 847411
The identity of the perpetrator was revealed just days later when the bank robber was promptly caught. This is what the Courier-Post wrote:
The same man is behind at least three bank robberies in Camden County this month, prosecutors say.
Vincent Venezian[i], 29, was arrested Monday by Cherry Hill Police in connection with a robbery earlier that day at the Wells Fargo Bank on Evesham Road. Police said he entered the bank at about 3:13 p.m. and passed a note to the teller demanding cash; he fled with an undisclosed amount but was [arrested] a short time later.
The Camden County Prosecutor’s Office said the Cherry Hill man is also responsible for two other robberies earlier this month: one at the Fulton Bank branch in Voorhees on April 4 and another at the TD Bank in Marlton on April 23.
Venezian[i] faces robbery and drug charges and is in Camden County Jail on $60,000 bail.
And so ends, this time for good, yet anoter semi-repentant attempt of one former drug-addicted Wall Streeter to get his life, and career, back in order. And failing.
At this point, if we were Bloomberg, we would immediately use this psychologically unstable heroin addict as a source of clickbaiting “information” on either of his prior two employers, whether Business Insider or Hedgeye. But since we realize just how troubled this totally lost this young man is, and since we are not Bloomberg, we won’t.
As for Veneziani, we hope that one day he will put his life back in order and may truly recover.
via http://ift.tt/1sDMa9v Tyler Durden