Richard S. Piccoli of Amherst and his Gen-See Capital Corporation, accused of running a multimillion- dollar Ponzi scheme

Investors who fear they were fleeced by Richard S. Piccoli of Amherst and his Gen-See Capital Corporation, accused of running a multimillion- dollar Ponzi scheme, clogged a hotline that federal investigators set up Friday. Postal inspectors said they spent all day taking information from investors but admitted that many were unable to get through. “It’s been overwhelming,” Postal Inspector Raymond Williams said of the calls. Both Williams and Gretchen L. Wylegala, the assistant U. S. attorney prosecuting Piccoli, urged investors to have patience and to continue trying the hotline, (716) 853-5344. Meanwhile, attorneys for the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission, got a federal judge to freeze Piccoli’s bank accounts and issue a restraining order against his selling any more investments.
U. S. District Judge William M. Skretny said the attorneys had presented enough evidence that Piccoli, 82, was not investing in mortgages as he claimed, but merely taking in deposits and paying out investments. The U. S. Attorney’s Office and SEC lawyers presented bank records showing that while Piccoli had seen more than $16 million pass through his accounts in the last two years, there is no evidence that he had invested in anything as he promised. One of those investors unable to call the hotline on Friday was a Tonawanda woman who said she and her husband had $100,000 invested with Piccoli. Like others, she said they had learned of the investment plan from a friend in their Catholic church. What sold them on it, she said, was the guaranteed 7.1 percent annual interest rate. “My husband and I were reading the story [about Piccoli] and we both felt pretty stupid,” she said. Wylegala said that investigators are currently drawing up a questionnaire they intend to send to all of Piccoli’s investors. They are trying to learn, she said, exactly how much had been invested with Piccoli and his company over the years. It’s too early, both she and Williams said, to know how much, if anything, investors will get back. “We always hope for the best,” Wylegala said, “but they really need to prepare themselves for the worst. We undertake diligent efforts to try to recover as much as we can, but we won’t be able until this investigation is over to know how much we can recoup.”
If investors are unable to get through the hotline, Wylegala said, they can send a note to her with their name, address and telephone number. (Gretchen L. Wylegala, U. S. Attorney’s Office, 138 Delaware Ave., Buffalo, NY 14202.) Piccoli, who declined to comment in court on Thursday, is due back before U. S. Magistrate Judge Jeremiah McCarthy with his attorney Tuesday on the criminal complaint, and before Skretny on the SEC civil complaint.