What there is to know
- A former New Jersey attorney has been sentenced to prison for stealing more than half a million dollars in settlement funds from two dozen of his Brooklyn clients and nearly $100,000 in COVID-relief funds. 19, local prosecutors said.
- Raleigh Douglas Herbert, 61, of Chatham, was sentenced Wednesday to between one and three years in prison, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said. Herbert pleaded guilty to second and third degree grand larceny as well as first degree plan fraud on December 16, 2022.
- According to González, citing evidence, he said that from 2015 to 2021, Herbert, who handled wrongful arrest and personal injury cases against New York City, embezzled approximately $493,000 from 16 de clients in Brooklyn by depositing checks received from negotiated settlements. your lawyer. escrow account.
NEW YORK – A former New Jersey lawyer has been sentenced to prison for stealing more than half a million dollars in settlement funds from two dozen of his Brooklyn clients and nearly $100,000 in COVID-19 relief, local prosecutors said.
Raleigh Douglas Herbert, 61, of Chatham, was sentenced Wednesday to between one and three years in prison, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said. Herbert pleaded guilty to second and third degree grand larceny as well as first degree plan fraud on December 16, 2022.
According to González, citing evidence, he said that from 2015 to 2021, Herbert, who handled wrongful arrest and personal injury cases against New York City, embezzled approximately $493,000 from 16 de clients in Brooklyn by depositing checks received from negotiated settlements. your lawyer. escrow account.
To hide these thefts, Herbert lied to his clients about why they hadn’t received the money, including blaming court closures related to COVID-19 or claiming that the victims had privileges that left him unprotected. prevented them from being paid when none of these privileges existed.
Additionally, Herbert stole approximately $96,000 by submitting fraudulent loan applications through the COVID-19 Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) administered by the US Small Business Administration.
Herbert was arrested on February 1, 2022, and again on May 2, 2022, on two separate counts which were later combined. Herbert was later arrested a third time, on Dec. 7, 2022, on a felony complaint accusing him of stealing approximately $77,000 from eight other customers who came forward after his second arrest.
Herbert was later suspended from practicing law in New York State in March 2021, but continued to represent a client in a wrongful death lawsuit against the New York Police Department, without telling his client that he was to receive a settlement of $750,000, he had been suspended.
Herbert was subsequently banned from practicing as a lawyer effective June 2022.
According to the district attorney, the misappropriated funds were used for various personal expenses and unrelated debts.
“This defendant repeatedly violated his oath as a lawyer and betrayed the trust of his clients by pocketing hundreds of thousands of dollars in settlement money and COVID-19 relief funds to which he was not entitled. Criminal conduct in the legal profession is unacceptable, and today’s conviction sends a strong message that it will be vigorously prosecuted,” González said in a statement.
The New York State Lawyers Client Protection Fund has paid a total of about $470,000 to 16 of the defendant’s victims, according to the district attorney’s office.
The New York State Lawyers Client Protection Fund has paid a total of about $470,000 to 16 of the defendant’s victims, according to the district attorney’s office.
“The theft of money from legal clients is not just a crime, but a profound breach of trust placed in attorneys. On behalf of the more than 351,000 members of New York’s legal profession, the Lawyers Fund works to restore that trust by reimbursing damages caused by the few in our profession who cause such losses,” said Michael J. Knight, executive director of the Lawyers Client Protection Fund.