One month after his wife was sentenced to 25 years in prison for siphoning more than $1 million out of the local charitable organizations she helped run, Marco Aponte struck a plea bargain with prosecutors that does not include any jail, but which calls for him to pay back several hundred thousand dollars to Louanne Aponte’s victims.
Marco Aponte pleaded guilty to hindering apprehension, a misdemeanor, in exchange for the more serious charges against him of money laundering being dropped. The deal calls for him to serve two days in jail, which he has already done.
He also must forfeit property presumed to have been purchased with the money his wife took from Family Connections, where she served as executive director for a decade, and Hyde Park Christian Church and Texas Association of Child Care and Resource Referral Agencies, where she volunteered as treasurer. The property includes the couple’s house in the Circle C subdivision, valued at $360,000, as well as a 2005 Mercedes, a 2002 ski boat and $60,000 seized from bank accounts.
He also agreed to forfeit $66,000 from the bail he posted earlier.
In February 2010, as state auditors were catching on to her thefts, Louanne Aponte fled to Venezuela, where she lived with her husband’s family. She returned this past December to face her charges.
Macro Aponte said he was ready to put the saga behind him.
“I am glad it’s over,” he said outside the courtroom. “We will have a tough road.”
He added: “I still support Louanne. She is still the mother of my children and I am still there for her and we all make mistakes.”
Aponte’s attorney, Joe Turner, said the plea deal was fair.
“Marco has surrendered all of the assets that he has…as well as a significant amount of money,” he said. “I think everybody in this cased is ultimately satisfied in the outcome. The truth of the matter is he really didn’t know” about his wife’s crimes.
In accepting the plea bargain, state District Judge Julie Kocurek asked Travis County assistant district attorney Gregg Cox, “You are confident he had no knowledge of what his wife was doing, is that why you’re doing this?”
“We do not think we could prove it,” Cox responded.
Cox said the deal and the seizures of Louanne Aponte’s assets should end up returning up to $400,000 to the organizations and individuals that were victims of Louanne Aponte.
While TACCRRA and Hyde Park are still functioning, Family Connections, which lost crucial government contracts because of Aponte’s thefts, went out of business. In that case, Marco Aponte’s restitution will go to the bankruptcy trustee to be distributed to unpaid employees, among other expenses, Cox said.