Mastermind of Kayport Package Express in Springfield found dead in New York City
F. George Celani, the mastermind behind the Kayport Package Express debacle in Springfield in early 1980s, was found dead in the Richmond Hill section of Queens, New York, in early February.
Celani, 75, was listed as "unclaimed" by the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System.
A New York Times article quoted the New York City Medical Examiner's Office as reporting the death being related to cardiovascular disease.
The Buffalo, New York, native last went to jail on a 2009 crime for bilking would-be investors in a make-believe retirement home business. Celani operated a company called Rainmaker Managed Living under the name "Sidney Levine."
In Springfield, Celani was convicted of fraud, racketeering and conspiracy in federal court following the Kayport ordeal.
Celani said the shipping company based at Capital Airport — now Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport — would rival FedEx. Despite the months-long hoopla leading up to its opening, Kayport operated for just four days before shutting down March 5, 1983, delivering zero packages.
He had posed as a tax attorney and mechanical engineer in promising people jobs and persuading public officials his scheme would work.
Celani and an associate, Aaron M. Binder, wrung $3.8 million (that would equate to nearly $12 million today) from investors.
Springfield wasn't the first place Celani, who was sentenced to 15 years behind bars but served only six, would devise cons.
In his 20s, Celani was convicted in his hometown when he collected money from investors for an imaginary waterfront development.
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Shortly after his release from federal prison on the Kayport charges, Celani set up shop on the West Coast, founding a legal center that promised inmates that attorneys could get their convictions overturned.
Operating as "Fred Sebastian," Celani was sentenced to seven years in prison in late 1993 for his part in a scheme to bilk a California convict and his wife out of $50,000.
Celani had promised the man, who went to prison on drug charges, that he would obtain his release from prison.
During the case, a U.S. district judge described Celani as "a human tragedy.”
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By 2000, Celani made his way back to central Illinois, living in a Peoria apartment complex. He abandoned that address, leaving behind all his possessions and furniture, in 2001, according to a State Journal-Register report.
As federal agents in New York closed in on the 2004 operation, Celani disappeared for four years, and he became one of the FBI's "Featured Fugitives."
While the FBI searched for evidence, Celani, a diabetic, told an agent he needed insulin, according to court papers. He promised to be back in 45 minutes but went on the lam instead.
In a 2009 article, Jon Gray Noll, a defense attorney who assisted Celani in his trial in Springfield, told the SJ-R that he was "disappointed that the Department of Corrections didn't correct (Celani)."
It wasn't immediately clear about Celani's surviving family members. He was married twice.
Contact Steven Spearie: 217-622-1788; sspearie@sj-r.com; X, twitter.com/@StevenSpearie.
This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Fraudster F. George Celani was found dead in New York City
