DA: Disbarred Attorney Looted Clients’ Accounts
Posted on Thursday, 13 of November , 2008 at 6:58 pm
QUEENS—A former Queens attorney has been arraigned on charges of looting the escrow accounts of several clients and failing to return over $100,000 that she had been holding on behalf of those clients.
The defendant, Arelia Taveras, is alleged to have claimed that a gambling addiction caused her to steal the money.
Taveras, 46, presently of Bloomington, Minn., Taveras was arraigned before Acting Queens Supreme Court Justice John Latella on a 11-count indictment charging her with four counts of third-degree grand larceny, one count of fourth-degree grand larceny, five counts of first-degree offering a false instrument for filing and one count of first-degree scheme to defraud.
Taveras, who faces up to seven years in prison if convicted, was ordered held on $50,000 bail and to return to court on Jan. 7.
District Attorney Richard A. Brown said that, according to the indictment, Taveras accepted $2,500 from a buyer as a contract deposit and an additional $22,500 as a down payment on a cooperative apartment in Bayside that she was selling. It is further alleged that the buyer’s application was subsequently denied by the cooperative board and that when she tried to get her deposit back Taveras refused to return the money. After numerous requests, according to the charges, the buyer’s attorney received a call from Taveras stating that she would not repay the money and that she was in a rehabilitation center in Colorado.
In addition, according to the indictment, Taveras is accused of ripping off three clients, including one who retained her in connection with a real estate transaction. The indictment charges that Taveras failed to release $10,000 of the client’s money that was held in escrow.
Another client was allegedly bilked of $40,000 stemming from the sale of commercial property. Taveras is accused of stealing $34,142 from a third client who allegedly retained her to represent him in connection with a divorce proceeding and a refinancing of his home. And finally, Taveras is alleged to have stolen $1,500 from a colleague who lent her the money for personal expenses and was repaid with a check that bounced.
It is further alleged that according to a videotaped statement submitted by Taveras to the Grievance Committee in response to one of their inquiries, Taveras said she had taken client money because of a gambling addiction and blamed the Grievance Committee for not properly supervising young attorneys. Later, she allegedly told detectives that she was a personal friend of the president of the Dominican Republic and that she could disappear in the Dominican Republic and never be found if she
chose to do so. Taveras also allegedly told detectives that she could not believe she was being arrested, that the alleged thefts were not a big deal and that she would pay back all of the money. Taveras was disbarred in June 2007.
In September 2008, U.S. District Court Judge Renee Bumb dismissed a $20 million racketeering lawsuit filed by Taveras against seven casinos. In her lawsuit, Taveras alleged that the casinos had a duty to stop her from gambling by claiming that gambling was a hazardous endeavor worthy of special protections.
In her ruling, Judge Bumb wrote, “Playing blackjack, roulette or the slots bears no likeness to dumping toxic waste. She [Taveras] spent money on the bona fide chance that she might win more money. In short, she gambled.” 11-13-08
Category: Consumers, Courts, Crime
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