It was oil in the family.
A Staten Island man lifted $100 million from his father’s heating-fuel fortune in order to gobble up pricey real estate and build a mansion for his wife, according to court papers.
Joseph LaForgia, 52, who served six months in prison on a tax-evasion charge and is accused of hiding millions overseas in Swiss banks, even looted his dead grandmother’s bank account, his family charges.
Turns out Joseph was just following in his father Frank’s footsteps: The elder LaForgia was nabbed, along with his son, in a money-laundering scheme by the feds in 2007 but died in January 2013 before he could serve his one-year prison sentence.
Frank’s wife and two daughters have hired attorneys to protect the dad’s estate, recover the Swiss funds seized by the feds and force their brother to return the allegedly stolen money.
Joseph’s slippery schemes started a decade ago, and the thievery from Empire Fuel Corp. became “blatant and extreme as time went on,” according to the lawsuit.
Frank LaForgia’s wife, Josephine, and daughters, Cindy and Donna, say Joseph used the stolen cash in part “to spend lavishly on his second wife, Lisa,” and to build her a secluded $2 million compound on Todt Hill.
Using corporate names for anonymity, Joseph LaForgia allegedly spent his father’s money on property in Brooklyn, Staten Island, Long Island and a $2 million condo in the Bahamas.
He also sold five Manhattan condos owned by his dad and pocketed $150,000 for himself, claim Joseph’s sisters.
Joseph LaForgia did not respond to calls for comment.