A former New York attorney has been sentenced to prison after admitting to embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars from his clients.
57-year-old Douglas Valente, formerly a resident of Long Island but now living in Florida, was handed a prison sentence of one to four years in Suffolk County Court on Thursday, August 22nd.
Valente, the former principal attorney at the Valente Law Group in Stony Brook, has been accused by prosecutors of embezzling over $800,000 from three of his former clients. He is alleged to have taken the money from his escrow account.
One of the victims included a client who had sold a home while going through a divorce.
Instead of keeping the $400,000 in proceeds from the sale in his escrow account, Valente confessed to utilizing the funds for both business and personal expenses.
Valente confessed to embezzling over $181,000 from an elderly client who had sold her home.
He was obligated to send fifty percent of the earnings to his client and the remaining fifty percent to her matrimonial attorney, who would hold it in escrow until her divorce was officially completed.
Valente confessed to keeping the funds that were intended for the other attorney. This unfortunate incident prevented his client from receiving the remaining proceeds from the sale of her home after her divorce was completed.
Valente admitted to pilfering an additional $248,000 from Guaranteed Rate Inc., a mortgage lender.
In December 2023, he admitted his guilt for three counts of grand larceny, all of which were considered felonies.
He was not only sentenced to prison but also required to pay $826,525 in restitution.
