Pleasantville lawyer admits stealing $20 million

Friday, February 16, 2007

Pleasantville lawyer admits stealing $20 million

Timothy O'Connor
The Journal News


WHITE PLAINS - A real estate lawyer stole more than $20 million from clients and banks, spending lavishly on vacation condos, home improvements and new cars.

Anthony Bellettieri, 53, of Pleasantville pleaded guilty yesterday in U.S. District Court in White Plains to one count of bank fraud and one count of mail fraud. By statute, he faces up to 50 years in prison. But a plea agreement he signed with federal prosecutors yesterday calls for a likely sentencing range of 10 years and one month to 12 years and seven months. Bellettieri also agreed to pay up to $22 million in restitution to those he ripped off from 2003 until November last year.

Bellettieri has been under investigation by the FBI's White Plains office since November. He apparently cooperated with the investigation from its early stages.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Cynthia Keefe Dunne said Bellettieri and his lawyer, Murray Richman, met several times with federal investigators.

"Mr. Bellettieri has actually been cooperating with us in trying to resolve this expeditiously," she said.

Bellettieri, the founding partner of the firm Bellettieri, Fonte and Laudonio, stole most of the money through a classic con known as a "check kite" scheme. He siphoned money from the firm's escrow account, writing checks on a second account to cover the losses from the escrow account.

J.P. Morgan Chase, the principal victim in the case, said in a civil lawsuit that Bellettieri used an error on printed checks to facilitate the scheme. It came crashing down in November after the bank issued new checks with correct information.

"It was brought to a screeching halt by the main victim," Dunne said during Bellettieri's hearing yesterday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Lisa Margaret Smith.

Dunne ticked off the list of ways Bellettieri used the stolen money: He paid for a new swimming pool at his family's home at 9 Crestview Drive. He got a kitchen extension in the home. He paid for a family wedding. He paid high salaries of the staff of the law firm, salaries that were far in excess of what the firm was bringing in. He bought a condo in Aruba and another in Miami Beach. He paid credit card debts for himself and others. He bought commercial property in the Bronx.

As part of his guilty plea, Bellettieri agreed to forfeit all the properties he bought and his half of the family home.

In addition to the check-kiting scheme that netted more than $20 million, Bellettieri also persuaded a client to invest nearly $2 million in private mortgages that he claimed the firm held for other clients. In fact, there were no such mortgages. He mailed phony mortgage documents to the victim, deposited the funds in the firm's accounts, and used the funds for himself.

Dressed in a houndstooth check sport jacket and black dress pants, Bellettieri calmly pleaded guilty.

When Smith asked him to explain what he did, he sounded very much like a lawyer.

"Over the last number of years, I was covering overdrafts in our mortgage closing accounts," he said. "I wrote checks out of a controlled disbursement account and deposited it in our funding account."

Bellettieri was released after signing a $500,000 bond. He is scheduled to be sentenced May 18 by U.S. District Judge Charles Brieant. Richman, his lawyer, said Bellettieri would not comment on the case.

Richman said Bellettieri started "robbing Peter to pay Paul" once the check kite scheme started.

"It started to steamroll. Once you're in for a penny, you're in for a pound," he said. "It's a terrible thing to see a man destroyed and humbled by his own actions and lose control of his life."

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