As NY criminal defense attorneys and former Manhattan prosecutors, the lawyers at Saland Law PC, have handled cases involving Money Laundering, Grand Larceny, Scheme to Defraud and Offering a False Instrument for Filing. However, there is always a little “twist” when the accused is a member of your own profession. Only a couple of weeks ago I mentioned how important it is to investigate and research your attorney before retaining him or her. Well, once again, some people made a big mistake in retaining the wrong attorney. According to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, an attorney and his firm have been indicted from the crimes of Money Laundering, Grand Larceny, Scheme to Defraud and Offering a False Instrument for Filing for defrauding clients.
According to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office press release, it is alleged that over the course of approximately seven years, Steven Rondos and his law firm, Raia & Rondos, P.C, “engaged in a scheme to defraud 23 incapacitated victims, and the estate of one deceased individual.” It is further alleged that “Mr. Rondos was appointed by various Supreme Court Justices in the New York City metropolitan area and elsewhere as legal guardian of property of incapacitated individuals. In that capacity, Mr. Rondos was responsible for safeguarding and managing the assets of incapacitated people. Instead, Mr. Rondos took advantage of the trust placed in him by the courts and the wards’ families and stole their money. In some instances, Mr. Rondos continued to steal money even after the victims had died.” In total, Mr. Rondos is accused of pocketing millions of his clients’ money and law enforcement is seeking asset forfeiture from him in the neighborhood of $5,000,000.
Mr. Rondos is clearly in need of experienced criminal counsel if he wants to prevent a bad situation from getting significantly worse. If convicted of the charges, Mr. Rondos faces up to 8 1/3 years to 25 years in state prison on the charges of Grand Larceny in the First Degree and Money Laundering in the First Degree, 5 years to 15 years on the charge of Grand Larceny in the Second Degree, 2 1/3 years to 7 years on the charge of Grand Larceny in the Third Degree and 1 1/3 years to 4 years state prison on the charges of Scheme to Defraud in the First Degree and Offering a False Instrument for Filing.