Hamlet Peralta, the Harlem restaurateur who is a pal of cops and two businessmen caught up in a Manhattan federal corruption probe, is staying in jail.
A federal appeals court backed a Manhattan federal judge’s decision to imprison the former owner of the NYPD hangout, Hudson River Cafe, pending his fraud trial.
Peralta, 36, was denied bail after the government argued that the businessman, who has ties to the Dominican Republic, fled to Georgia after being approached by the FBI about his business dealings.
Peralta’s lawyer, Cesar de Castro, sought to have the ruling overturned by arguing that his client only flew south for a job opportunity that opened up after his popular restaurant shuttered. Peralta also wasn’t under arrest at the time the FBI agent approached him, de Castro said.
The appeals court sided with Manhattan federal court Judge Katherine Forrest’s decision to detain the alleged Ponzi schemer, citing “the absence of evidence” that he went to the Peach state for work.
Peralta has been in federal lockup since his April arrest over a $12 million Ponzi scheme surrounding an allegedly fictitious wholesale liquor business.
His Hudson River Café was a popular hangout for NYPD bosses now at the center of a massive FBI probe over gifts received in exchange for official favors, including former Chief of Department Philip Banks III and Deputy Chief David Colon.
Peralta also has ties to ex-prison guard union boss Norman Seabrook and did business with the government’s primary witness against the cops, businessman and Bill de Blasio donor Jona Rechnitz.