A Roslyn Heights attorney indicted in 2014 for stealing more than $1.4 million from his former law practice was sentenced to six months in prison last Thursday, Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas announced.
Steven Weinstock, an East Hills resident, pleaded guilty in 2015 to four counts of second degree grand larceny, criminal possession of a forged instrument and offering a false instrument for filing, has already served a year in jail.
Nassau County Judge Angelo Dellagatti ordered Weinstock to pay $1.2 million in restitution along with a six months prison term and five years’ probation, the DA’s office said.
“The defendant’s greed knew no bounds and he stole from his clients, his law partner, a mortgage company and real estate buyers who were unaware that there was an unpaid mortgage on their property,” Singas said.
Weinstock stole $720,000 from an escrow account and failed to pay off an outstanding mortgage loan of $700,000 and pocketed more than $700,000 from the sale of an East Hills property owned by his former law practice without the firm’s knowledge, the DA’s office said.
“These brazen thefts are particularly troubling because the defendant was in business with his then law partner for more than 10 years. My office will continue to aggressively prosecute any and all instances of professional corruption and I encourage anyone who may have been victimized by an attorney to contact our complaint hot line,” Singas said.
In April 2014, prosecutors said Weinstock sent a package, which included handwritten note to his former law partner saying money was missing from an escrow account and that he had sold an East Hills property the company owned without satisfying an outstanding mortgage loan without knowledge or permission of his law partner.
The firm referred the matter to the district attorney’s office, which found Weinstock had placed the $720,000 into a separate escrow account for down payments on two commercial condominium properties in New York City, the DA’s office said.
DA investigators said they later found that Weinstock had not paid off an outstanding mortgage on the East Hills property, which the firm took out in 2010 after purchasing the property in 2008.
The buyers’ lender paid approximately $608,000 directly to Weinstock’s law firm.
At the closing, the buyers paid Weinstock approximately $117,000, in addition to the $50,000 down payment paid by the purchasers at the time of contract — for a total of approximately $775,000 in proceeds from the sale, the DA’s office said.
Weinstock then filed a forged satisfaction of mortgage with the Nassau County Clerk’s office for $485 to conceal the an outstanding mortgage loan amount of approximately $485,000 on the property transaction, the DA’s office said.
DA investigators said Weinstock continued to make payments on the outstanding mortgage loan of approximately $483,000 without notifying the lender or the buyers that a lien on the property had not been satisfied.
The funds stolen by Weinstock were used for various personal and professional expenses, including substantial loan repayments, credit card payments and cash withdrawals, according to the DA’s office.
The clients who were victims of Weinstock’s theft of two down payments will receive full restitution — in the amount of $370,000 and $350,000— from the Lawyers’ Fund for Client Protection of the State of New York, the DA’s office said.
Efforts to reach Weinstock’s attorney, Kenneth Keith, were unavailing.
