Attorney Joseph Levine Arrested for Stealing from Clients

Joseph Levine, a 59-year-old recently disbarred attorney from Hewlett, Nassau County New York is under arrest and has been charged with stealing in excess of $300,000 from two clients who he was supposed to be representing over the course of the past year. The charges against him are Second and Third Degree Grand Larceny and two counts of Second Degree Criminal Possession of a Forged Document

In evidence in the complaint states that in December of 2006, the defendant advised a resident of the Nassau County Village of Rockville Center to settle for $300,000 in relation to a personal injury lawsuit. Then on December 25, he visited the office of the insurance company in Pennsylvania and pressured them to issue a check because, according to him, the client had a daughter who needed the money to pay for heart surgery. They issued the check to the defendant in the name of his client. He then forged the signatures of both the client and her husband and proceeded to deposit the check into his bank account. The bank's records show that he did deposit $300,000 on December 28,2006.

By the time March rolled around, his bank account stood at -$139.44 and the clients never received any of their settlement money. The Nassau County's District Attorney's Office was notified on March 19, 2007.

In 1982 New York State established The Lawyer's Fund for Client Protection which reimburses clients money that they lost due to dishonest conduct by any lawyer who is licensed in the state. So far the fund has sent his client $250,000. The money for the fund comes from the 226,000 licensed members in the legal profession in the state by way of a legally required registration fee.