US News

SELFLESS ‘ROBBER’ REJECTS A PLEA

The Manhattan man who fancies himself a modern-day, multimillion-dollar Robin Hood – and who allegedly admitted embezzling from his rich bosses so he could give to the poor – pleaded not guilty to grand larceny yesterday.

The plea by party planner and cabaret-music patron John Loan, 41, comes nearly a month after cops say he told them “he was surprised he didn’t get caught earlier.”

That damaging statement and others – including Loan’s alleged admission to five years of embezzlement, during which he had “started drinking” – were released in court papers yesterday after Loan snubbed, for now, a prosecution plea-deal offer carrying a four-to-12-year sentence.

Should Loan continue to pass on the deal, he faces a maximum sentence of 25 years if he’s convicted as charged of stealing $3.4 million from his Midtown employer, Alliance Capital Management.

Loan stole the loot by sending Alliance catering bills from his bogus company, Beautiful Parties, prosecutors charge.

While Loan claims he spent the money charitably – giving to AIDS organizations and helping the careers of poor cabaret singers – he also lived glamorously, according to prosecutors.

“The money was used to pay for hotels and trips to Cairo, Rome, London, Paris,” prosecutor Melissa Paolella said yesterday. He rang up $1.8 million in credit-card bills alone, Paolella said. Much of the loot funded his own recording business, Jerome Records, she said.

Prosecutors say they already have some six boxes of canceled checks to prove the alleged embezzlement. With the release of his signed confession, and other police statements yesterday, the evidence is only mounting.

Loan’s lawyer, Arthur Aidala, says the statements should be thrown out because cops intimidated Loan at the Midtown North station house and denied him access to a lawyer.

“I started Beautiful Parties to get extra money” to pay for lover Jamie Nesky’s AIDS treatment, Loan said in his statement. “He died. I started drinking and continued billing Alliance.

“I started an acting school – Solo Performance – the students mostly had no money,” the statement continued. “I started giving money to GMHC [Gay Men’s Health Crisis], AIDS organizations and started helping non-profit groups.

“I did this on my own,” it concluded.