Mario Cortolezzis has been behind at least two scams, quite possibly more. The first involved a fundraiser for the charity, Autism Speaks, back in 2004. At the time, Mario was in a band and was telling people that he'd be hosting a large New Years Eve fundraiser for the Autism Speaks charity. His band would play and all the proceeds would go to the charity. Tickets were $120 each. About 100 people were at that event.
After the event, Mario skipped town. He never had any contact with any of the current band members he played with that night. He skipped his tab with the caterer and the hotel where it was hosted. The charity had not sponsored or was even aware of the event being held.
Mario simply lied about all of it. Set up the event and charged everyone there $120 cash. And then stuck the money in his pocket.
Soon afterwards, he began a new lifestyle. He'd gone through gastric bypass surgery and went from over 400 pounds to about 150. He maintained the image of a lavish lifestyle and came up with a plethora of stories to explain the money. The popular line was how an old friend affiliated with the mafia (whatever mafia that is) named, Jake Polantra, was going into business with him. They were going to buy the Block E Theater in downtown Minneapolis and convert it into a two story nightclub called Piccolinos. Jake had given Mario a large wage advance to support himself until the club could begin construction. Of course, none of this was true, but it was Mario's way of explaining where the cash was coming from.
Over a period of 3 months, Mario blew through all of the roughly ten grand he gleaned from his friends in the New Years Eve party.
After wearing out his welcome in Minneapolis and people started catching on, he moved his workings back to Waconia. All mention of Piccolinos or Jake Polantra or Mario stopped. Meanwhile, Mario started a new business called Power Generator Sales.in this scam, he setup a phony website and email account in order to take in down payments and then not deliver any product. Pretending to be both himself and his legal assistant/receptionist, he would delay and stall and provide excuses ad nauseum until the client finally gave up and went away.
The biggest "investor" and loser in this scheme was his own aunt and uncle, who handed over an untold amount of money that was never seen again.
Since then, Mario has joined the Minnetrista reserve police unit. Rides around in squad cars with the local authorities and is doing his best to set up another website income garnering business.
One of these is Marko Productions.in which he provides a training tape (made with Microsoft's Movie Maker software) giving education to dealing with autistic people, and he claims to be part of a large video production company.
Recently, he has started SAFER. A company providing radio tracking devices for autistic kids. Charging $5000 for a $1000 device. Http://safermn.net/
Beware of any business dealing with this individual. He's not above using anyone or anything to further his means.
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