Post by Graveyardbride on Feb 11, 2015 14:08:18 GMT -5
Lawyer Faces 3 to 9 Years for Cemetery Theft
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. – An attorney faces three to nine years in prison for stealing almost $2 million from a Staten Island cemetery, funds that authorities said he attempted using to hide even longer-standing thefts from his legal clients’ escrow accounts. Timothy Griffin (above) pled guilty Wednesday before Staten Island Supreme Court Justice Stephen Rooney to a felony count of first-degree grand larceny. He is scheduled to return April 28 for sentencing. Denis Kelleher, counsel at Clayman & Rosenberg, represented Griffin at Wednesday’s appearance.
State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s office said Griffin, as acting president of the not-for-profit United Hebrew Cemetery, made six transfers from the cemetery’s treasury between late 2012 and early 2014 totaling $1.9 million into the attorney escrow account he maintained at his Bronxville real estate law practice. Griffin used the money to try to cover his tracks after stealing more than $1 million from his escrow accounts between April 2009 and February 2014, Schneiderman said. Authorities said Griffin, 55, used the stolen funds to make “lavish” purchases, such as a BMW, Lexus and membership at the Waccabuc Country Club in Westchester County. Schneiderman’s office noted that Griffin was brought in as acting president of the United Hebrew Cemetery after its previous operators were found guilty of embezzling about $850,000 from the cemetery.
Griffin is scheduled to appear in Westchester County Court February 19, where he faces multiple grand larceny counts from the attorney general’s office connected to the thefts from his escrow account.
Griffin, who lives in Ridgefield, Conn., also was sentenced last week in federal court in Connecticut to six months in prison for tax evasion, Schneiderman said.
Source: Joel Stashenko, The New York Journal, February 5, 2015.