Former attorney charged with stealing from clients

A former attorney from Long Beach faces up to five to 15 years in prison after he allegedly stole thousands of dollars from seven clients, Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas said Thursday.

Frank Adipietro, 51, surrendered to investigators from the district attorney’s office on Thursday and appeared in District Court in front of Judge Joseph Girardi on charges of second-degree grand larceny and first-degree scheme to defraud, both felonies. The former criminal defense lawyer was conditionally released on probation and is scheduled to appear in court on April 4.

According to Singas, a client hired Adipietro in 2011 to represent him on a DWI charge, and paid him more than $80,000 in cash over a four-year period after Adipietro allegedly told him he needed to make continuous payments to remain out of jail on bail, which Singas said was a lie.

“Attorneys have a responsibility to represent their clients in an honest and ethical manner,” Singas said in a statement. “This former attorney allegedly enriched himself at the expense of his clients and I encourage anyone else who may have been victimized to contact our office and file a complaint.”

Singas said that Adipietro allegedly defrauded six other clients, stealing about $20,000 total in separate matters covered by the charges in this case, Singas said. In one case, he allegedly accepted $10,000 from the sister of a Baldwin client for bail even though the client had been remanded. Adipietro allegedly took $2,500 from a sister of the defendant in a similar case in which her brother had already been released from custody.

Another matter involved Adipietro allegedly pocketing $3,200 meant for a client’s traffic tickets. The client was subsequently arrested on a warrant because the tickets were not paid. The Long Beach man also allegedly asked a Merrick client for nearly $2,500 to pay fines to “the people in Supreme Court,” but the client found out later there were no fees owed.

Stephen Kalba, the attorney representing Adipietro, did not immediately return a call for comment.

The victims in the case came forward after Adipietro was arrested in January 2015 on charges related to stealing money from a client in a gambling case, a suit that is still pending. Adipietro resigned from the New York State Bar Association in August and can no longer practice law in the state.