A 41-year-old Wilkes-Barre man, who is charged with stealing from and scamming a Nazareth company involved in powering cryptocurrency mining, is now accused in a Pen Argyl case, Slate Belt Regional police report.
Philip Joseph Dilullo, who already faced two counts of theft by deception and single counts of theft and receiving stolen property in the case involving Local Mining Ventures LLC, was charged Friday with two more counts each of theft and theft by deception, police say.
Dilullo was paid $14,000 between July 15 and Aug. 20 by a woman and her daughter to install cryptocurrency mining equipment but, despite making several appointments in September to bring an electrician to do the work, he never showed up, court papers say.
A full refund was requested on Sept. 28, court papers say.
Mining is the solving of the complex math problems involved in creating new cryptocurrency.
Police were alerted on Sept. 29, court papers say. On Oct. 22, an investigator was told by one of the victims that Dilullo returned $7,000.
Police said in February they contacted Dilullo who directed them to his attorney, David Melman. Melman told police that Dilullo was “trying to come up with the money to pay back the victims”, court papers say.
On June 2, police received permission from the Northampton County District Attorney’s Office to charge Dilullo, court papers say.
Dilullo was arraigned Friday before District Judge Alicia Rose Zito and freed on $20,000 unsecured bail, records show.
His preliminary hearing is tentatively scheduled for 9:30 a.m. June 17 in Central Court in Easton.
Melman didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment.
Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to lehighvalleylive.com.
Tony Rhodin can be reached at arhodin@lehighvalleylive.com.