Brooklyn Lawyer Stole $200K From His Clients, DA Says

BROOKLYN, NY — A Brooklyn attorney who prosecutors say stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from his clients has been charged with grand larceny, the district attorney announced.

Robert Santoriella, who has an office in Downtown Brooklyn, was arraigned Monday on several grand larceny charges for taking $201,000 of funds that he was meant to return to his clients, prosecutors said.

“This defendant allegedly betrayed the trust of his clients and abused his power as an attorney, taking advantage of the escrow accounts he controlled to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars to which he was not entitled," Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said. "We will now seek to hold him accountable for this serious breach.”

Santoriella, who is from Yonkers, is accused of taking three checks that were meant for his clients between December 2018 and February of this year.

In the first, Santoriella was representing a client in the sale of a $1.3 million lot in Bushwick, including holding onto a $131,000 down payment that he was meant to keep until closing. But when the deal fell through, Santoriella never returned the down payment to the buyer, prosecutors said.

Another time, Santoriella received a $75,000 settlement check for a client in a personal injury case. Instead of taking just $25,000 as his fee, Santoriella never turned over any of the proceeds to his client, according to prosecutors.

He did the same with a $30,000 settlement check from another personal injury case between July 2019 and January 2021, prosecutors said.

Santoriella is charged with one count of second-degree grand larceny, two counts of third-degree grand larceny and one count of first-degree scheme to defraud. He was released without bail and will return to court on March 17.

Attempts to reach Santoriella were unsuccessful.