Disbarred Attorney Accused Of Stealing 9/11 Victim's Money

YORKTOWN HEIGHTS, NY — A disbarred attorney was accused of stealing about $1 million from the government's 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund. Audrey Strauss, the acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said Gustavo L. Vila, 62, of Yorktown Heights, was charged with one count of theft of government funds.

Vila was arrested Sept. 3.

Strauss said he stole money awarded to his client — a New York Police Department officer and 9/11 first responder — by the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund.

"Vila allegedly lied to his client, telling the client for more than three years that the money Vila stole had yet to be released by the Fund," she said. "Further, Vila lied to his client about his standing, continuing to hold himself out as an attorney even after he had been disbarred."

According to prosecutors, from about 2012 through 2019, Vila represented a retired NYPD officer in connection with his claim for compensation from the Victim Compensation Fund, which was created by Congress to provide federal money to anyone who suffered harm or was killed as a result of the terrorist attacks or the debris removal efforts in the aftermath.

Vila's client was diagnosed with, and suffered from, serious life-threatening medical conditions, including cancer, as a result of the rescue and recovery work he performed at Ground Zero.

The entire time he represented his client, Vila told his client and the fund that he was an attorney, in spite of having been disbarred in 2015.

Authorities said that, in May 2013, Vila submitted a claim to the fund on behalf of his client and had the resulting money — in the amount of $1,030,622.04 — deposited in October 2016 into an account controlled by Vila's law firm.

Once the money had been deposited, Vila was required to distribute the funds to his client, less 10 percent in attorney's fees. Prosecutors said he did not do so.

Rather, Vila kept kept almost the entire amount of the award for himself and used it for his personal benefit, including paying his own taxes, authorities said.

From October 2016 to February, Vila told his client that the fund had not yet released the majority of the award, when in fact it had all been released to his client, according to prosecutors.

Theft of government funds carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

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