Disbarred Florida Attorney Gets 14 Years For Pocketing $1.7M+ From Escrow Accounts Involving Clients' Real Estate Transactions

In Pinellas County, Florida, the St. Petersburg Times reports:

• Richard Da Fonte, the disbarred Clearwater lawyer accused of stealing more than $1.7 million from clients, was sentenced to 14 years in prison and 15 years' probation.(1)

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• [His lawyer, Larry] Sandefer said his client had hoped to pay back his victims from the sale of his business, real estate and life insurance. The business, though, which Da Fonte sold to a former associate, is tied up in a legal dispute. Foreclosure is pending on his office condominium, and his home is in foreclosure, Sandefer said. His $3 million life insurance has lapsed.

For more, see Disbarred lawyer Richard Da Fonte gets 14 years for stealing from clients.

Go here, Go here, Go here, and Go here for other stories of trust account / escrow account theft of funds.

(1) The story describes some of Da Fonte's victimized clients as follows:

• Shakawat Hossain of St. Petersburg hired Da Fonte in 2003. He said the lawyer stole about $235,000, money he planned to use to buy a gas station and convenience store;
• Pinellas Park resident Sharon Dore and her family lost $110,000 when they hired Da Fonte to handle the sale of her late mother's St. Petersburg home. The money was supposed to go to Dore, her daughter and a brother;
• Joan Kelly, a widow, paid for her Seminole home in full in April 2007. That summer, while she was in Cape Cod, she began getting calls from lawyers offering help with a problem. It was foreclosure. Da Fonte had taken almost $200,000 meant to pay her home's previous owners;
• Winnie Yang of Clearwater couldn't wait to have her say during the lengthy hearing. The lawyer stole $400,000 from her brother-in-law Kenneth Yang, who lives in Texas. The money was from a real estate transaction involving Yang, her husband and her brother-in-law. EscrowRipOffAlpha