A financial advisor faces charges of robbery, conspiracy and impersonating a law enforcement officer after detectives linked him to a bizarre botched crime in the summer of 2020.
Anthony A. Naso was arrested on May 4 in Paramus, New Jersey, after investigators examining DNA evidence, surveillance footage, vehicle records and social media identified him as one of three men who pretended to be police officers in an attempt to rob an East Rutherford resident outside of his home,
Investigators say Naso, Nicholas Polimeni and an unidentified third assailant grabbed the victim on the staircase outside his door just before 10 p.m. on Sept. 11, 2020, and told him they were police officers, the county’s warrant and affidavit states. They had donned “police-style badges,” but the victim began to resist them when the attackers ignored his request to see their badges and tried to zip-tie his hands behind his back, the document states. The victim fought them off and began calling for help, so Naso and the others fled, police say.
Naso, a 27-year-old resident of Seaside Heights, who prosecutors say is married and employed as a financial advisor, and Polimeni, a single 27-year-old tile worker from Toms River, didn’t manage to rob the victim of anything even though they had grabbed, shoved and restrained him during the ambush. They did not know the victim, the warrant states. The charge of conspiracy to commit robbery is a felony, inmate records show. Authorities have released them on bond.
There was no attorney listed as representing Naso, and he didn’t respond to inquiries to the Red Bank-based offices of Integrated Financial Concepts,
An attorney representing Polimeni didn’t respond to requests for comment. Beyond the warrant noting that a “follow vehicle” speeding away from the scene that night belongs to “a known associate” of Polimeni and Naso, prosecutors didn’t provide any information on the third man.
Authorities investigate financial advisors much more frequently for fraud than other types of crime, though New Jersey saw another disturbing arrest only last year on charges unrelated to securities. Former LPL Financial and Wealth Enhancement Group advisor Nicholas Spagnoletti
Investigators didn’t cite any motive for the attack on the East Rutherford man outside his home in September 2020. In their getaway, the three attackers had jumped into a waiting black pickup truck — later believed to be Naso’s 2020 GMC Canyon — and a silver sedan identified as the associate’s 2018 Infiniti Q-50, the warrant states. Following an “extensive review” of surveillance footage, including images available from the victim’s doorbell camera, as well as a series of interviews and poring over police reports, investigators tracked down a mask, gloves, screws and one of the phony badges in a parking lot near the scene, according to the document.
Forensic testing of the mask by the New Jersey State Police Lab revealed a match with Polimeni, who has a “longstanding association” with Naso, the warrant shows. Investigators had classified Naso as a suspect by that time, based on “a striking resemblance” between his pictures on social media and law enforcement databases and a “largely exposed portion” of one of the men’s faces from the videos, according to the document. The same man was wearing an Adidas hat that looked like one he was wearing in a social post, investigators say.
The victim didn’t suffer any injuries in the attack, despite being surprised on his own doorsteps when he came home that night, according to the document. It’s not immediately clear how Naso and Polimeni will plead to the allegations. The East Rutherford Police Department, the Paramus Police Department, the Seaside Heights Police Department and the Toms River Police Department assisted Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella’s office with the investigation.
