Disbarred Armonk attorney Laurieanne DeLitta was sentenced on Sept 6 to state prison for one to three years for stealing $3.7 million from clients.
DeLitta had pled guilty to eight counts of grand larceny for thefts from clients from 2017 to early 2021, according to a press release issued by Westchester District Attorney Miriam E. Rocah. She took proceeds from the sales of client assets and diverted the funds to personal bank accounts.
DeLitta, 51, of Briarcliff Manor, began practicing law in 2001 and opened her own firm in Armonk in 2010. She focused on family law, real estate transactions and estate planning.
John R. Varamo Jr., of Stamford, for instance, hired her to handle the sale of a commercial building in Mamaroneck. The building sold for $950,000 and the funds were turned over to DeLitta to hold temporarily in her firm’s checking account.
But almost immediately, according to a lawsuit Varamo filed last year in Westchester Supreme Court, DeLitta began making excuses for not releasing the money. Eventually, she stopped responding to his emails and calls.
When clients demanded their money, according to several other lawsuits filed against her, she fabricated stories and made excuses. Her sister had stolen client funds; she had inadvertently deposited the money in the wrong account; she was in the hospital; she was holding funds for pending claims against an estate; the bank had frozen her account because of an attempted wire fraud.
In May 2021, the state Second Appellate Court disbarred DeLitta and ordered her to pay up to $2.2 million to the victims known at that time.
The district attorney’s Economic Crimes Bureau investigated several complaints and arrested her on criminal charges last November. Assistant prosecutor Cooper Gorrie handled the case.
Westchester Justice Anne Minihan, who sentenced DeLitta to prison, also ordered her to pay full restitution to the victims.
