A lawyer from Shelton was arrested Thursday and accused of stealing $170,000 from clients of his former law practice.
Joseph DeFilippo, 52, was charged with first-degree larceny and second-degree forgery, according to a press release from the state’s Division of Criminal Justice.
The release said DeFilippo stole from clients “and others who had dealings with his former law practice.”
If convicted, he faces a maximum prison sentence of 25 years.
DeFilippo was admitted to the bar in 1994, but resigned in 2011 after having his law license suspended.
At the time he was practicing law at DeFilippo & Russo in Shelton.
The Office of the Chief State’s Attorney started an investigation into DeFilippo based on a complaint filed by the Office of the Chief Discliplinary Counsel (the group that pursues grievance complaints).
“According to the arrest warrant affidavit, investigators executed a search and seizure warrant for DeFilippo’s bank accounts, which documented thefts totaling more than $150,000,” according to the press release.
According to the state’s Chief Disciplinary Counsel, Patricia King, she received a flurry of complaints about DeFilippo leading up to his suspension in 2011.
After her office filed for an interim suspension, DeFilippo agreed to permanently resign from the practice of law.
“Often times in cases where significant funds have been misappropriated, rather than defend the case, particularly if there is possible police involvement, lawyers will give up their law license,” King said. “It’s not uncommon in that scenario.”
Shady
According to court documents, DeFilippo got in trouble over the way he handled his representation of both the buyer and seller in a liquor store sale.
Nainesh Shah hired DeFilippo to help him buy the liquor store in 2010.
Shah paid DeFilippo $200,000, believing $70,000 was a down payment and the rest was toward the purchase price.
Thereafter the deal fell apart. Shah wanted his money back.
Shah was able to get $70,000 back, but DeFilippo kept the remaining $130,000.
DeFilippo said the $130,000 was for legal fees, and that they agreed to a $500 per hour rate.
DeFilippo claimed the agreement also called for Shah to cover his work for the seller at $200 an hour.
The seller, though, told investigators he was already paying DeFilippo — to the tune of $13,000.
Shah said he never saw a “fee agreement” from DeFilippo and that his signature on it was a forgery.
The charges against DeFilippo announced Thursday also stem from a case he handled for a former colleague at Morrison Mahoney in Hartford, where DeFilippo previously worked.
According to the arrest warrant affidavit, attorney Anita DiGioia’s father’s business, DESCO Products, had a large amount of money embezzled by its bookkeeper in 2006.
The bookkeeper, Kerry Ebersole, later confessed and was sent to federal prison.
DiGioia had DeFilippo help her with a prejudgment remedy in the matter in state court, so the company could go after Ebersole’s bank account in the event the woman ever came into a large sum of money.
DiGioia said the two worked on it together until DeFilippo left Morrison Mahoney in August 2006.
In late 2012, DiGioia opened her own firm in Milford, and went to court to get a copy of the document she had prepared for her father’s company with DeFilippo.
The bookkeeper had been paying restitution — roughly $47,000 over five years — but the money was allegedly funneled to DeFilippo, who had set himself up as a phony trustee for DESCO Products.
Investigators also spoke with Tracey Russo, formerly of DeFilippo & Russo. She didn’t have access to any of the firm’s bank accounts, and said that DeFilippo owed her some $10,000 when their partnership dissolved.
Following his arrest, DeFilippo was released on a promise to appear for his arraignment at Superior Court in Derby on Oct. 9.
Portions of this story reprinted with permission of the Connecticut Law Tribune.
