REMINGTON…OR RUGER?
Canadian Con Artist Rob Carbone — The Would-Be Politician With A .22 Caliber Secret
Toronto native Rob Carbone first made news in 1991, when the then 23-year-old milk distributor married Diana Pessotchinksaia just weeks after meeting her at a local strip joint, where he paid her to dance on his table.
Pessotchinksaia, an 18-year-old from Leningrad, and a dozen other women, billed as “Gorby’s Girls” and “The Russian Connection”, claimed they were lured to Canada in January 1991 by promises of acting and modeling careers, then forced to strip for a living.
Carbone milked his celebrity status from the beginning, inviting the media to cover his April 4, 1991 wedding amid disclosing the news of their breakup “because someone had to come clean about the charade the newlyweds had been acting out before the cameras”. Insisting to the press that he’d “never had a real marriage”, Carbone conversely maintained he’d married Pessotchinksaia for love, not to help her gain immigration status.
Carbone spent the days after his breakup bemoaning his lost love to Canadian and United States media, while his former bride spent her nights dancing naked at a Barrie, Ontario strip joint.
It appears “Strippergate” taught Carbone a valuable lesson: people believe impossible things if you keep repeating them.
In 2019, Carbone reinvented himself as a politico, and the leader of the Republican Party of Canada. Never mind that the “Republican Party of Canada” was never legally registered with Elections Canada, or that Carbone ever seriously raised funds for his political career.
It was just another con job — one of many Carbone has pulled in Canada and here in the United States.
MY BROTHER IN TORONTO: DAVID DAMANTE AND ROB CARBONE
On March 17, 2014, I introduced readers of my crime/fraud blog (Glistening, Quivering Underbelly) to David Damante. A prolific con artist, Damante (who’s also used the names Robert Damante and David Diamante), began promoting his relationship with Carbone on Facebook and Twitter. In early 2015, I received information about Damante and a scheme he called "Whey2Go" protein powder.
Damante had taken thousands of dollars from his "fiance", a woman he'd convinced to fund his efforts, create corporate documents and bank accounts, while concealing his secret deep-pocketed convicted felon partner: a Toronto "Sicilian bomber billionaire" named Rob Carbone.
In a June 19, 2015 petition filed by a U. S. Probation Officer (excerpted above) detailing Damante’s multiple probation violations related to his fraudulent Whey2Go scheme, Rob Carbone is identified as one of Damante’s “friends”.
According to the petition, Carbone had been “supporting the offender financially since his release into the community on or about January 2015.”
As late as August 20, 2018 (after Damante’s second probation violation), Rob Carbone’s name still appears on Damante’s “No Contact” list.
“ROB CARBONE BRINGING IT TO YOU LIVE! If YOU EVER NEED A DIVORCE, CALL THE BONESTEIN…AND I PROMISE YOU SHE WILL SIGN.”
On November 15, 2010, an arrest warrant was issued in United States District Court for the Eastern District of Washington, charging Roberto (Rob) Carbone with “being an alien illegally and unlawfully in the United States” in possession two firearms.
Carbone had been recorded in Washington State on video in October 2010 shooting several firearms, and was in the United States illegally.
In the video, Carbone states “Rob Carbone bringing it to you live…um, if you ever need a divorce, call the Bonestein.” Upon finishing shooting, Carbone stated “and I promise you she will sign.”
Carbone slipped back over the border into Canada, eluding arrest until April 12, 2013 when a flight he was on was diverted to San Diego, California. Carbone was arrested, and later plead guilty.
A document filed June 6, 2013 on Carbone’s behalf in advance of his Change of Plea hearing acknowledged, but did not detail, Carbone’s “criminal history in Canada”.
Carbone is barred from entering the United States without “advance legal permission of the United States Attorney General” or his/her representative.
So how does Carbone make his money?
It’s clearly not through his phony “Global Investment and Private Financing” firm, London Burke.
A “London Burke Inc.” Ontario Business Corporation was created on March 30, 2015, but Carbone does not have a physical location in Toronto.
Although Carbone purports to occupy office space at 23 Bedford Road in Toronto, the property’s management company confirmed to me in early November 2020 that “Rob Carbone does not have office space at 23 Bedford Road, and has never had an office space at that location.”
Sounds like he could be a con man.
What do you think?
