By Greta Solsaa/VTDigger
A prominent business owner in Ludlow reported to federal prison Friday, May 9, to serve a 20-month sentence related to his role in a kickback scheme in New York. The surrender date for Troy Caruso — originally scheduled for April 8 — has been extended twice due to requests for time to arrange accommodations for his businesses.
Caruso, 57, was indicted and arrested in December 2023 for bribing a project manager working for a global commercial real estate firm that occurred between February of 2021 to September of 2023.
Originally from Long Island, New York, he owns multiple businesses in Ludlow including the Fox Run Golf Club and The Barn at Fox Run and the restaurants Calcutta’s, Terra Italian Steakhouse and Off the Rails.
The two charges against Caruso, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, of conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud and honest services wire fraud are related to payments totaling $48,000 he allegedly made to gain preferential treatment and assistance in bidding on and obtaining construction contracts for a project valued at $3.5 million.
Both federal charges have a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. In a deal with federal prosecutors, Caruso pleaded guilty last fall to the first count of the indictment, according to a U.S. Attorney’s Office Southern District of New York press release. On Feb. 28, Caruso was sentenced to 20 months in federal prison, and was ordered to pay forfeitures and fines totaling roughly $816,000, according to federal court documents.
Caruso reported Friday to a federal minimum security satellite camp in Otisville, New York to serve his 20-month sentence. In an interview, Caruso said he intends to return to Ludlow after his prison term is finished and said he plans to use the time while incarcerated to seek permits to build condominiums, houses and hotels on his land ownings surrounding the golf course.
Caruso was initially set to surrender April 8, but he was granted an extension to April 22 to “arrange accommodations for his businesses,” according to a request letter filed with the court.
On April 18, Caruso was granted a second extension of his surrender date to May 9 for additional time for business arrangements. The request letter filed to the court by Caruso’s lawyer stated that “26 of his company accounts have been cancelled, in addition to his personal and business credit cards.”
In an interview on April 23, Caruso said he had several outstanding work-related tasks, including initiating new lines of credit and helping with the engineering phase for a condominium project at the Fox Run Golf Course, before his surrender date.
In interviews a week prior, Caruso said staff are in place to manage his businesses in Ludlow — including the Fox Run Golf Club and his restaurants — while he serves his sentence. Caruso expects this to be the “busiest year ever” for his various establishments, with the golf club opening for the spring and summer season and his restaurants “all running properly.”
Caruso’s 37 limited liability companies based in Ludlow will remain registered under his name as principal manager, he said, except for Sam’s Steakhouse, which the Federal Emergency Management Agency intends to buy out after the building sustained significant flood damage. Caruso’s other business that sustained flood damage, Mr. Darcy’s Bar and Burger, is expected to reopen later this year as a private Bourbon and Cigar bar, he said.
In a Feb. 14 letter addressed to the U.S. District Judge Lewis J. Liman, Caruso expressed remorse for his criminal conduct and wrote that his actions were influenced by a downturn in the economy during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“My conduct has risked everything I worked so hard to achieve in life. I have also risked the future of my businesses, and more importantly, the future of my employees,” Caruso wrote. “I have lost construction jobs, two lines of credits with two different banks, consulting contracts, multiple credit cards, reputational damage, golf members, customers and endless opportunities.”
The Ludlow municipal manager, the Ludlow Select Board vice chair and the executive director of the Okemo Valley Regional Chamber of Commerce said they had no comment on Caruso’s sentencing and the potential impacts on Ludlow’s community and local economy.
