BOSTON, Mass. -- A federal appeals court on Friday refused to release Cranston estate planner Joseph A. Caramadre from prison as he awaits sentencing for his role in an investment scheme that targeted terminally-ill people.
The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals concluded that Caramadre failed to raise a "substantial question" in contesting District Court Judge William E. Smith's order that he be held as a potential danger to the community and flight risk.
Caramadre had argued Smith was wrong to order him held as a suicide risk. He asserted Smith ignored case law "in favor of a determination based upon a flight of fancy regarding a (non-existent) risk of Mr. Caramadre hurting himself; and what is best described as a fit of pique regarding Mr. Caramadre's attempt to withdraw his guilty plea."
Caramadre's mental health was at the forefront of his bid to withdraw his guilty pleas to fraud and conspiracy. He said he was beset by depression exacerbated by his wife's breakdown and had bad legal representation.
Smith dismissed his arguments as meritless, bizarre and a cynical attempt to manipulate the court. He then ordered him imprisoned at the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility "out of an abundance of caution" as a protective measure after Caramadre testified about the depth of his depression.
Federal prosecutors cast Caramadre as the mastermind of a multimillion-dollar scheme in which he and his employee Raymour Radhakrishnan stole identities of terminally ill people. They then used that information to purchase investments his clients profited from after the people died.
Radhakrishnan, too, pleaded guilty to fraud and conspiracy. Caramadre and Radhakrishnan have asked that their Sept. 13 sentencing be delayed.