EAST GREENWICH – Bill Pinelli, former partner of Steve Marra, in the Pinelli Marra Restaurant Group has filed a complaint in the Kent County Superior Court accusing Marra of embezzlement.
Pinelli and Marra teamed up in 1994 to open the Post Office Café at 11 Main St. in East Greenwich and went on to expand their joint operations to include a catering company, a real estate firm as well as several restaurants: The Grille on Main, Quattro Italian Grille (later known as Pinelli’s Cucina Twist), Twist Restaurant, Twist Restaurant II, Pinelli’s North End, Pinelli’s Cucina and Waterplace Restaurant.
Their partnership ended in 2009 when Marra bought out Pinelli’s 30 percent share, East Greenwich’s Patch said.
Pinelli alleges that Marra secretly arranged to have the cash sales figures adjusted down in five of their jointly-owned restaurants from 2000 to 2005. Pinelli also says Marra misrepresented the financial solvency of the businesses, telling Pinelli they were not profitable.
According to Patch, Marra stopped payments to Pinelli on the 30 percent share sale after learning that Pinelli had gone into partnership in a new restaurant, Flare, in Coventry. When the partners separated in 2009, Pinelli signed a non-compete clause.
Before entering the partnership, Pinelli was operating Pinelli’s Gourmet Deli at 701 Quaker Lane in West Warwick while Marra owned Alias Smith and Jones, now the Grille on Main, across the street.
Their first venture together, the Post Office Café, was shuttered on Jan. 9 nearly a month after the Marra Restaurant Group filed for receivership, Patch reported.
The complaint filed against Marra includes an affidavit from Kimberly Marie Ragosta, former manager of the partners’ Quattro Restaurant, claiming Marra approached her in 2000 to adjust down the cash sales figures by approximately 20 percent of the monthly sales. From 2001-2005, she claims Marra would give her handwritten notes “detailing exactly how much I was to reduce each restaurant’s cash sale income per month.”
Ragosta also says Marra “made it clear” to her that the adjustment was a mandatory part of her job duties.
