New York: Long Island Attorney admits to embezzling $797,000 in funds from client
Law Office of Brian A Raphan, who won conviction of attorney charged with embezzling over $750,000 from her ward
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TUESDAY, JUNE 23, 2015
DISTRICT ATTORNEY
QUEENS COUNTY
125-01 QUEENS BOULEVARD
KEW GARDENS, NEW YORK 11415-15611
718-286-6000
Release 109-2015
www.QueensDA.org
twitter@QueensDABrown
CONTACT: KEVIN RYAN
IKIMULISA LIVINGSTON
MERIS CAMPBELL
718-286-6315
LONG ISLAND ATTORNEY ADMITS TO EMBEZZLING S797,000 IN FUNDS FROM CLIENTS
Will Sign Confession Of Judgment; Faces Vp To 410 12 Years in Prison
Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown today announced that a Great Neck, Long Island, attorney has admitted to stealing more than $797,000 in funds that belonged to clients over a four-year period.
District Attorney Brown said, “The defendant has admitted to breaching her fiduciary duty and unjustly enriching herself at the expense of her clients. Under the terms of the guilty plea in which she admitted her guilt, the defendant will sign a confession of judgment to begin the process of making her victims financially whole and faces the prospect of serious prison time. This is a fair and reasonable resolution to the case.”
The District Attorney – who was appointed a special prosecutor in the case at the request of the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office – identified the defendant as Martha Brosius, 52, of Great Neck, New York. Brosius, an Elder Law attorney who maintained offices in Great Neck and Manhattan, appeared yesterday before Acting Supreme Court Justice Helene F. Gugerty and pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree grand larceny and one count of scheme to defraud.
Justice Gugerty set sentencing for August 12, 2015, and indicated that she would cap any prison term at four to twelve years. At that time, Brosius also will sign a confession of judgment for $797,000.
District Attorney Brown said that, in pleading guilty, Brosius admitted to stealing more than $797,000 in funds from clients – including a 77-year-old man deemed incapacitated under the mental hygiene law and for whom Brosius had been appointed as a guardian and two brothers who hired Brosius to handle their father’s estate and sell his residence in order to set up a Special Needs or Supplemental Needs Trust for their disabled sister, who was the sole inheritor of their father’s estate.
District Attorney Brown thanked the Office of Court Administration (OCA) Inspector General Sherrill Spatz and OCA Managing Inspector General for Fiduciary Appointments Elizabeth Candreva for their assistance in the investigation.
The District Attorney noted that the Office of then-Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen M. Rice requested the appointment of a special prosecutor to handle the matter in order to avoid any resulting appearance of impropriety due to a conflict of interest.
The investigation was conducted by Detective Kevin J. Kehoe, of the District Attorney’s Detective Bureau, under the overall supervision of Deputy Chief Investigator Robert J. Burke and Chief Investigator Franco Russo. Also assisting in the investigation was Supervising Forensic Accountant James J. Dever.
Assistant District Attorney James M. Liander, Bureau Chief of the District Attorney’s Integrity Bureau, and Senior Assistant District Attorney Yvonne Francis, prosecuted the case under the supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Investigations Peter A. Crusco and Deputy Executive Assistant District Attorney Linda M. Cantoni.
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Note to Editor: An e-version of this press release is posted on QDA website at www.queensda.org
