Nassau Attorney Pleads Guilty To Stealing Millions From Clients

A West Hempstead attorney who stole more than $5.7 million from clients between September 2012 and February 2014 pleaded guilty on Tuesday to grand larceny charges.

David Frankel, 52, pleaded guilty in front of Acting Supreme Court Justice Helene Gugerty to first-degree grand larceny. Frankel is due back in court on March 1 for sentencing. Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas is recommending he be sentenced to five to 15 years in prison and ordered to pay restitution.

“In less than a year and a half, this defendant pilfered more than $5 million from his clients and egregiously used that money to fund his unsuccessful investments,” Singas said. “David Frankel was supposed to represent the best interests of his clients, but instead he defrauded them.”

Frankel represented seven realty companies between June 13, 2012, and Sept. 12, 2012, with overlapping ownership in eight Brooklyn properties. The properties were refinanced, and $5,769,281.17 was placed in escrow into an Interest on Lawyer Account, commonly known as an IOLA account. The companies were held by relatives, and the principals were deciding how to distribute the funds.

Several days after the money was deposited into the account, Frankel began drawing on it and using the money to fund his own unsuccessful investments and to make payments in unrelated real estate transactions. The account, in which other unrelated money was periodically deposited, was drawn down to a balance of $836.81 by Feb. 28, 2014. Frankel was not authorized to use the funds for any purposes other than distributing them as instructed by the principals of the companies.

The district attorney was alerted to the allegations, and an investigation was opened in December 2015. Frankel was disbarred in October 2015.

Photo: Nassau County District Attorney's Office