Louis Petrillo

Louis F. Petrillo was the president of Bayshore Bank of Florida, a bank in Miami, when the Miami Herald reported in June 1987 that he had moved $2 million of the bank's money to GeoMiliTech Consultants Corp., a Washington, D.C. firm that the newspaper said bought weapons for the Contras. He later pleaded guilty to misapplication of funds and bank fraud.

Career and departure from Bayshore

The United Press International account of the Herald's reporting described Petrillo as 46 years old, "considered an expert on international banking," and a regional chairman of the Florida Chamber of Commerce.¹ The Herald reported that he had left his post as chief executive of Bayshore just as federal authorities, including Iran-Contra special prosecutor Lawrence Walsh, began investigating the transactions at the small Miami bank.¹ American Banker later reported that Petrillo committed his crimes while working first at Florida National Bank and then at Bayshore, where he was president.² Bayshore's corporate filing with the Florida Department of State, with annual reports for 1985, 1986 and 1987, lists Louis F. Petrillo of 10800 Biscayne Boulevard, Miami, under title code PD, with Anthony S. Caserta under code C, Matthew H. Bradley under code D, and Gary B. Cole, Kenneth L. Harris and Robert Tankersley under code V.³

The GeoMiliTech transfers, 1986

The Herald's records showed that Petrillo paid out a total of $2 million of bank money on behalf of GeoMiliTech during 1986. The debts were unsecured, were supposed to be repaid within weeks, and remained outstanding. The newspaper said that the sum was nearly all of the bank's net worth that year, and that federal law limits an unsecured loan to one borrower to 15 percent of a bank's net worth.¹ The company, which the Herald said lists retired Maj. Gen. John Singlaub as an adviser, acknowledged helping arrange rebel arms supplies.¹ The company was run by the former Miami radio talk-show host Barbara Studley.¹

A bank director, Matthew Bradley, said the board had been told by bank executives about three weeks earlier that Petrillo had made questionable transfers on GeoMiliTech's behalf. Bradley said that payments that "exceeded his limits" had gone unpaid.¹

Petrillo told the Herald that he had no knowledge of any arms deals and that he had quit the bank because it was changing hands. He said, "I don't know where they're getting that," and "There is no money missing." He also said, "Somebody's blowing it all out of proportion."¹ Studley told the Herald that the case involved private banking matters and declined to discuss the details.¹

Plea, sentence and the claim of CIA backing

American Banker reported on March 31, 1995 that Petrillo, who had pleaded guilty "last September" to misapplication of funds and bank fraud, had been sentenced to one year in prison, with five years of probation and $2 million in restitution.² The article said that he had issued letters of credit for more than $2 million, without his bank's knowledge, to GeoMiliTech in 1986 and 1987, and that he diverted $53,000 for personal use while at the two banks.²

American Banker reported that Petrillo asserted in court that his dealings with GeoMiliTech were carried out in conjunction with the Central Intelligence Agency. Willie Fernandez, a spokesman for the United States attorney's office in Miami, said of that claim: "All that stuff was discounted in court."²

Gerald J. Tobin, a Miami lawyer who said he lost $100,000 when the bank failed, told American Banker that if the CIA claims were true, the government should compensate the 235 holders of Bayshore stock. Tobin said he intended to take Petrillo's court statements to state and federal justice officials and to request an independent counsel investigation. "I object to someone stealing my money, and that's what happened here," Tobin said.² Fernandez replied that Tobin "is free to pursue any avenue he wants to."²

A different Louis Petrillo in the Casolaro record

The report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua on the allegations of INSLAW identifies a "Dr. Louis Petrillo," a New York psychologist and part-time author, as the cousin of the journalist Danny Casolaro. The report states that in September 1990 he arranged for Casolaro to meet a New York City literary agent, that he attended meetings in New York in December 1990 with Casolaro, the agent and other publishing and agency representatives, that Casolaro spoke with him by telephone on August 7, 1991, and that in a letter dated August 17, 1991 he wrote that Casolaro sounded "enthusiastic" and was "looking forward to meeting with a 'source.'"⁴ He later told investigators that he believed Casolaro "could very well have committed suicide."⁴

That Dr. Louis Petrillo, a psychologist working in New York in 1990 and 1991, and Louis F. Petrillo, the Miami bank president named in the 1987 reports and the 1994 plea, are two different men who share a name.