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Adelphia founder kept property deeds after sale, ex-aide says

By David Voreacos
Bloomberg News

	John Rigas
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NEW YORK — Adelphia Communications founder John Rigas failed for a decade to honor a promise to transfer properties to the company to reimburse it for $14 million in corporate funds that his family had spent on personal items, an employee testified.

Rigas, 79, and his private companies sold dozens of properties in 1994 to repay Adelphia, employee Charles Raptis testified.

The Rigases failed to transfer deeds on $6 million of the properties, Raptis said. Rigas sold two parcels to others, including one to son James Rigas, who began building a house on the land where Adelphia had its headquarters in Coudersport, Pa., Raptis said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Judd Lawler asked Raptis how often that land was sold. "Twice," Raptis testified in federal court in New York at the Rigases' fraud trial. "Once to Adelphia in 1994 and once to James and Mary Ann Rigas in 2000."

Rigas and sons Michael, 50, and Timothy, 47, are accused of hiding debt and looting Adelphia, the No. 5 cable-television operator, from 1999 until its bankruptcy in June 2002. James Rigas, a former Adelphia employee, wasn't charged.

Raptis, a former assistant to John Rigas, testified that he learned of the Rigases' failure to transfer the properties only after John Rigas and his sons resigned from Adelphia in May 2002.

Raptis also testified that Adelphia paid $180,000 to John Rigas to help him buy another house in Coudersport and an additional $90,000 for renovations. Rigas wanted the house redone in 1998 for his daughter's wedding, Raptis said.

Timothy Rigas held title to the house, which was one of 16 properties transferred to Adelphia on March 1, 2004, the day of opening arguments in the fraud trial.

Raptis, who remains at Adelphia, said that after the Rigases left, he tried to retrieve $537,275 in antiques that the company bought to use in an abandoned Coudersport building for a planned bed-and-breakfast. Raptis said he believed the antiques were held in a barn "loaded with furniture" at Wending Creek Farm, the family farm in Coudersport where the Rigases live.

"I was told by Mr. Rigas and Mrs. Rigas that the Adelphia furniture is somewhere in that building," Raptis said.
 
Raptis told jurors that the farm produces corn, hay, sunflower seeds, honey, maple syrup and Christmas trees.

Raptis took the witness stand after a former finance vice president, LeMoyne Zacherl, testified yesterday that he learned upon joining the company in November 1993 that the Rigas family used company money for personal expenses on golf, personal trainers, limousines and vacation condominiums.

John Rigas agreed to stop the personal spending and sell the properties to the company to lower his debts, Zacherl said.

The properties that the Rigases sold to Adelphia and held for a decade included condominiums in New York. John Rigas retains title to one unit, which is in foreclosure. His daughter, Ellen, lived in another unit in the building at 330 East 75th Street.

Raptis began at Adelphia in 1987, working as the assistant to Rigas from 1994 to 2002.

Raptis' duties as Rigas' assistant included buying gifts for his boss' relatives and overseeing the company's national motor fleet and maintenance in Coudersport, he said.

Once, John Rigas offered Raptis a $19,000 bonus, which he later found out was a company loan, Raptis said.

In 1991, after he moved from North Carolina, where he had been managing an Adelphia cable system, to Coudersport, where Adelphia was based, John Rigas offered him a $19,000 check, Raptis testified.

"He said, 'Consider it a signing bonus. Thanks for moving up here,' " Raptis recalled.

But in summer 2002, after Adelphia's bankruptcy, Raptis received a letter from the accounting department saying he had a $19,000 loan from the company, he testified.

The Rigases are on trial with another former executive, Michael Mulcahey, 46, on charges of conspiracy, wire fraud, bank fraud and securities fraud.

Material from The Associated Press is included in this report.

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