Smithtown Lawyer Who Stole Child's Inheritance Sentenced

CENTRAL ISLIP, NY — A lawyer who stole the wrongful-death inheritance from a girl after her father died has been sentenced to nearly five years in prison, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Thursday.

Vincent J. Trimarco Jr., 52, of Smithtown was sentenced to 57 months in prison for conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud in a scheme to defraud a then-minor of her inheritance from a federal wrongful-death lawsuit. Trimarco was also ordered to pay $1.5 million in restitution and forfeiture worth $1.5 million. Trimarco pleaded guilty to the charges in October 2020. He had been admitted to practice law in New York since 1997.

"Trimarco’s theft of a seven-figure inheritance from a child so that he could purchase luxury vehicles and invest in real estate is a disgraceful breach of trust and betrayal of his time-honored duties as an attorney," Breon Peace, United States attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said in a news release. "His conduct is an affront to the courts, the bar and the community at large. [Thursday's] sentence should serve as a warning that this Office will prosecute corrupt attorneys who abuse their positions and break the law for personal gain."

From April 2012 through August 2017, Trimarco and his co-conspirator — the girl's grandfather — executed a scheme to defraud Rebecca Schaefer, now a 20-year-old single mother of two, of settlement proceeds stemming from the wrongful death of Schaefer's father, Scott Eriksen, Newsday reported.

Scott Eriksen died in jail at the age 0f 20 when Schaefer was 5, according to Newsday. Eriksen died in 2005 of what his family said was a brutal beating while he was jailed on a misdemeanor drug charge. He and Schaefer never met.

Using the settlement proceeds, Trimarco and the grandfather, Gary Eriksen, purchased luxury vehicles, including a Ferrari F430 Spider for $200,000 and a Jaguar XKR convertible for $57,000, authorities said. They also purchased multiple properties in Suffolk County for more than $600,000, and invested approximately $800,000 in the Emporium, a now-defunct nightclub and music venue in Patchogue, in which Trimarco was a part-owner at times, prosecutors said.

Despite orders from the Suffolk County Surrogate’s Court in April 2012, June 2012 and August 2012 restraining the disbursement of the settlement proceeds and ultimately directing that they be returned, Trimarco and Gary Eriksen sold the assets that they purchased with the settlement proceeds but did not return the money to Schaefer, officials said.

Trimarco was arrested in October 2017.

Gary Eriksen, named in the criminal case as an unindicted co-conspirator, died before the investigation was complete, Newsday reported.