Lawyer pleads guilty to $20 million thefts

A lawyer pleaded guilty to stealing more than $20 million from a bank and at least one client, spending the loot on vacation homes, a wedding and generous salaries for his employees, authorities said.

Under a deal with prosecutors, Anthony Bellettieri, 53, faces more than a decade in prison after admitting Thursday in federal court to bank and mail fraud dating to at least 2003.

Bellettieri, a real estate lawyer, stole the funds through check kiting — taking money from his law firm's escrow account and writing checks on another account to cover the escrow account's losses.

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According to J.P. Morgan Chase, the primary victim, the tactic worked partly because he used checks with a printed error. The scheme fell apart after the bank issued correct checks in November.

Authorities said Bellettieri also convinced a client to invest almost $2 million in phony private mortgages.

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Defense lawyer Murray Richman told The Journal News, "It's a terrible thing to see a man destroyed and humbled by his own actions and lose control of his life."

Prosecutor Cynthia Keefe Dunne said the stolen money paid for, among other things, a swimming pool at Bellettieri's Pleasantville home, a family wedding, high salaries for the law firm's workers and condos in Miami Beach and Aruba.

Bellettieri was released on $500,000 bond. Sentencing is May 18. His plea agreement requires him to pay as much as $22 million in restitution and forfeit properties he purchased.