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Philly investor: Accountant 'disappeared'

Walnut Capital says its controller has 'disappeared'

Developer and investor Joseph Grasso says he's looking for his firm's financial controller, Steve Smolenski. "He's disappeared," Grasso told me from the office of his Center City-based firm, Walnut Capital.

Grasso said he and his father, Joseph Sr., who both employed Smolenski, starting in 2007. They want to ask Smolenski about company funds. "We went out to his apartment in Downingtown, but it's all closed up," Grasso told me.

They checked at an address Smolenski had given them for his own father, who Grasso said Smolenski had told them he planned to visit in Maryland, "but there were weeds growing high in the yard" of the vacant home.

Grasso says Smolenski is a native of Poland and has both U.S. and Polish citizenship. "We've found he's gone by several other names," he told me.

Grasso says Smolenski's flight won't affect his coffee company, Saxbys Coffee Worldwide LLC, which he said is prepared to come out of bankruptcy, and continue expanding, after the court finishes resolving disputes between former franchisees and the previous owners.