He sobbed as he begged his ex-wife for money.
"When I get out of jail, this will leave me at age 72 with no money except my Social Security check, no home to live in and with no clothing except what the jail puts on my back," Miserendino, once worth an estimated $10 million, told Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Michael Guolee last week as he dabbed his eyes with a tissue.
His ex-wife, Cynthia Son, said nothing and did not turn to look at the man she had married in 1979. Her lawyer, Dennis Milbrath, spoke for her.
"Any money she would give him would be subject to government liens," Milbrath said. "We have to decline his request."
Miserendino has been in the Milwaukee County Jail since November 2005, facing 10 counts of bank fraud, mail fraud, wire fraud, tax evasion and money laundering. With two marriages ending in divorce, he now stands accused of trying to hide millions of dollars that otherwise would be part of a divorce settlement.
Miserendino's saga reads as if it were from Hollywood. The elements of love, money and larceny are all there.
The story began in 1979 when Miserendino, then 43, advertised for a housekeeper and cook. Son, 26 at the time, had been a flight attendant looking for a new career. She got the job, and six months later she and Miserendino married. The couple had three daughters in four years.
It was Miserendino's second marriage. He left his first wife and their six children on the East Coast when he came to Milwaukee.
Miserendino said he came to Milwaukee because of a job transfer and he began dabbling in real estate. Over the years that he was married to Cynthia Son, he built up his company, the Trace Corp., a real estate management and development company.
Son filed for divorce in January 2001. Miserendino refused to accept service of the divorce papers and went on the lam. It was then that his problems began.
According to court records, within a month of the divorce filing, Miserendino secretly set out to liquidate his company's assets and go underground. The divorce court judge, John DiMotto, had ordered that all the company assets be frozen until the divorce was final.
Miserendino enlisted the aid of his son from his first marriage, Mark, whom he had made a vice president of Trace. Son, who had been Trace's secretary, was removed from the company roster.
The effort involved taking out a bank loan for $5 million, a $500,000 advance on the company's line of credit, and cashing in Treasury bonds worth more than $10 million, according to court records. Miserendino gave the $5 million from the bank loan to his son. Mark got smaller cashier's checks and sent them to his father, who was secretly in Hawaii, where Trace owned a house and two lots.
The divorce was granted, and the court awarded Cynthia Son $5 million plus the family home in River Hills. But the money was gone -- much of it to taxes and penalties. But Miserendino also had converted nearly $5 million to cash and had stashed it in safe deposit boxes in Australia and in several states, according to court records.
Milwaukee lawyer Robert Steuer was appointed to sort out Trace's financial mess. That led to the foreclosure sale of Estabrook Homes, a 220-unit apartment complex in Shorewood, and other assets.
Miserendino, still on the lam, was charged in October 2005 by federal authorities. His son, Mark, was charged with income tax evasion.
In November 2005, after living with a girlfriend secretly in Hawaii and failing in an attempt at bankruptcy, Ronald Miserendino moved back to the mainland, where his luck ran out. An Oregon police officer stopped Miserendino for driving with his brights on. The federal warrant for Miserendino's arrested showed up when the officer checked his driver's license.
Miserendino said he has had few visitors while in jail, and none from any of his nine children.
"Their mothers poisoned them against me," he told a reporter.
Miserendino denied the allegations contained in the federal plea agreement in which he admitted to liquidating his company assets and evading taxes. He blames it all on his son, Mark, who is awaiting sentencing on tax evasion charges.
"I tried to send the money back to him so he could do it the right way and pay the taxes," Miserendino said. "I told him to pay her (Cynthia Son) and take care of the bills."
During the interview, he accused his son of hiding money that federal officials believe is still squirreled away somewhere.
Lawyers familiar with the case say the money has been accounted for.
Miserendino was supposed to be sentenced last week, but he refused to agree to the plea agreement just minutes before he was to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman. Matthew Jacobs, the assistant U.S. attorney handling the case, was going to recommend a four-year sentence that would mean Miserendino would get out sometime next year.
As part of the agreement, Miserendino was required to give his ex-wife $750,000 from the $2.9 million that he had hidden in Australian safe deposit boxes. In divorce court, he agreed to the payment, thanking her profusely for relinquishing any claim to his $1,236 monthly Social Security check. But he also begged her to give him half of the $750,000 so he "wouldn't have to spend my old age in poverty."
In the divorce court, Miserendino said earlier that he thought he could keep the rest of the $2.9 million. Now he understands that the IRS is bringing a civil action to collect back taxes and penalties, and he would have nothing.
"I owe more than they have already taken from me," Miserendino said.
Miserendino's new sentencing date is April 21.
To see more of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.jsonline.com. Copyright (c) 2008, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
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