An Armonk lawyer who was entrusted with millions of dollars from estates and real estate sales has allegedly stolen more than $2.6 million from clients.
J&L Mamaroneck Avenue Corp. accused Laurieanne DeLitta of stealing $950,000 from the sale of a Mamaroneck property, in a complaint filed April 1 in Westchester Supreme Court.
The J&L case is one of four strikingly similar lawsuits filed against DeLitta in the past six months.
DeLitta, of Briarcliff Manor, did not respond to an email asking for her side of the story.
She has practiced law since 2001 and she opened her own firm in Armonk in 2010. Family law, real estate transactions and estate planning are among her practices, according to the firm”™s website.
“One of her greatest accomplishments,” it states, “is that her clients typically return to her for all of their legal needs and refer their friends and family as well.”
In the J&L case, John R. Varamo Jr. of Stamford, hired DeLitta to handle the sale of a commercial building at 616 Old White Plains Road in Mamaroneck.
A West Harrison company agreed to buy the property for $950,000 and the funds were turned over to DeLitta to hold temporarily in her firm”™s checking account.
Almost immediately after the deal closed, J&L claims, DeLitta made a variety of excuses for not turning over the money and then stopped responding to calls and emails.
J&L”™s attorney, Jeffrey Klarsfeld of Manhattan, states in the complaint that several similar lawsuits have been filed against DeLitta.
Glen Wundeler of Ridgefield, Connecticut, sued her this past November. He had hired DeLitta in 2019 to handle the estate of his mother, Naomi Wundeler.
DeLitta received $999,157 from the sale of a house in New Rochelle, according to the lawsuit filed by Nassau County attorney Mark E. Goidell. She distributed about $500,000, but allegedly told Wundeler that she needed to retain $600,000 for pending claims against the estate.
Wundeler kept demanding the money but DeLitta, he alleges, “repeatedly fabricated stories ”¦ until she finally admitted in September 2020 that the funds were no longer in her escrow account, giving a fictitious explanation that her sister had stolen the money.”
Patricia Radogna hired DeLitta to handle the estate of her mother, Rose Suppa, who died in 2017. DeLitta had previously done legal work for Radogna”™s parents, Rose, and Dominick, who died in 2011.
In January 2020, the estate sold Rose Suppa”™s house at 611 Second St. in Mamaroneck for $500,000.
DeLitta received funds from the sale and from other estate assets to put in her firm”™s bank account. After paying estate bills, DeLitta was holding $538,110, according to a lawsuit filed last October by White Plains attorney Justin Gardner.
DeLitta allegedly ignored Radogna”™s inquires about the money, according to the complaint, or made excuses for not being able to distribute the funds.
Deborah Vallarelli of St. Louis, Missouri, sued DeLitta in October, after she was divorced, to handle the sale of her house at 108 Florence St. in Mamaroneck.
She is the granddaughter of Rose Suppa, who DeLitta had represented, and DeLitta allegedly offered Vallarelli a discounted “family rate” to handle the transaction.
DeLitta was holding $518,456 from the sale of the house. Vallarelli was supposed to get $265,954, according to a lawsuit also filed by Justin Gardner in October. Her ex-husband was to get $252,502.
Vallarelli received $22,460, according to the complaint, and a lot of excuses for not getting the rest of the money.
DeLitta allegedly told Vallarelli that she had inadvertently deposited the money in the wrong account; she was at a funeral; she would send a check via FedEx; she was in the hospital with a kidney stone; someone had tried to commit wire fraud and the bank had frozen her account.
“Incredibly, Ms. DeLitta went so far as to falsely accuse plaintiff”™s former husband, Joseph Vallarelli, as being the person responsible for this attempted wire fraud,” according to the complaint.
Joseph Vallarelli has received only $20,000 for his share of the sale, the complaint states, and he has made a criminal complaint with the Mamaroneck police department.
J&L, Joseph Vallarelli and Wundeler have complained to the attorney grievance committee for the Ninth Judicial District, according to the lawsuits.
DeLitta “will be imminently disbarred as an attorney,” Wundeler claims, for “the theft of funds entrusted to her by her clients.”
