Feds investigate lawyer in theft from client accounts

Friday, December 8, 2006

Feds investigate lawyer in theft from client accounts

Timothy O'Connor
The Journal News

WHITE PLAINS - Federal authorities are investigating a real estate lawyer suspected of stealing cash from client accounts.

The FBI's White Plains office and the U.S. Attorney's Office have been looking into Anthony Bellettieri, 53, of Pleasantville for about a month in connection with a theft of funds from his clients' escrow accounts, law enforcement sources said. Bellettieri is a founding partner in the firm of Bellettieri, Fonte, and Laudonio, which has offices on West Red Oak Lane in Harrison and Huntington Station on Long Island.

The Westchester County District Attorney's Office also has received complaints about Bellettieri's firm, but those complaints came after federal investigators had already executed search warrants, authorities said.

Murray Richman, Bellettieri's lawyer, said, "Indeed we are aware of an investigation and are desirous of cooperating in that investigation." Richman declined to comment further.

Neal Comer, a lawyer representing Bellettieri's partners at the firm, would not discuss details of the case, but said his clients had done nothing wrong.

"I've investigated this case extensively," Comer said. "Robert Fonte and Tara Laudonio are quite innocent of any wrongdoing and are victims."

Norman Heller, a lawyer who represented a seller from Florida in a transaction with one of Bellettieri's clients, said yesterday that three checks from the buyer's Chase Bank escrow account bounced after a real estate closing Nov. 17. Two checks were to Heller's client and one was for Heller's fees, he said. When he called Bellettieri, Heller said, the lawyer told him he would send another check. When that check arrived drawn on an account from a different bank, Heller said he knew something was wrong.

He called Bellettieri's firm and sent faxes demanding to know why the check was not drawn on the buyer's escrow account. He said he received no answer.

"After that, all hell broke loose," he said. "I filed my complaints with all the appropriate parties."

Heller, who declined to say how much money was involved in the transaction, said he complained to the District Attorney's Office and the Grievance Committee for the 9th Judicial District in White Plains. He said he was told by the District Attorney's Office that the case was being investigated by federal prosecutors. He spoke earlier this week with Assistant U.S. Attorney Cynthia Keefe Dunne, the prosecutor in the case.

"They did let me know they're looking into the firm," he said.

Herbert Hadad, a spokesman for U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia, declined to comment.

Bellettieri was admitted to the bar in New York in 1979, according to state records. He received his law degree from New York Law School and his bachelor's from Fordham University, according to the Web site for Bankers Integration Group Inc., a financing software company for which Bellettieri has served as a director.

Heller said he has done "two or three" other real estate deals with Bellettieri's firm over the years without any problems.

Reach Timothy O'Connor at tpoconnor@lohud.com or 914-694-3523.

Staff writer Jonathan Bandler contributed to this report.